Crimson blade
by Onichun
Summary: The crimson blade holds a legacy, a legacy that awaits to be known through the world. [Dropped]
1. Finding

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, if I did then there would be more characters in the whole thing and more death

* * *

"Ero-sennin!" was heard throughout the whole village. Said perverted hermit was currently sitting by a fence peeking through a hole into the female onsen. _'I'm never going to finish my research at this rate,' _was the simple thought passing through his mind as he saw the females he was spying on ran away into the dressing room. A short while later the origin of the outcry stood before him. 

"What is it gaki?" he asked the boy standing before him, a thirteen year old clad in an orange jumpsuit with bright yellow unruly hair and sapphire blue eyes and sun kissed skin. He was nothing special if there hadn't been for the three whisker marks on his cheek and a more subtle thing such as that he had the strongest bijū sealed within him.

"When are we leaving this place? We've been here for three months now and all you've done is peeping while I've trained on my own," the boy complained, "You said you would train me."

"Alright, alright gaki, just one more day then we'll leave for training." The white haired man said defeated. Up to this point he had avoided the complaints for three months and managed to get a great deal of 'research' done, but it seemed like it had come to a stop. Now he was forced to continue his travels with the brat.

"Good Ero-sennin," was all the boy said before he left. '_Now back to the research'_ thought the man before he turned around with a lecherous grin to perform his 'research', hoping that the females had returned.

* * *

"Damn Ero-sennin, all he does is peek while I train on my own," Naruto said out loud as he jumped through the forest outside the small town where they were staying. He had trained his speed and strength with weights for three months now; wearing the weights at all times so he figured he could perform a test to see just how much he had improved. 

"Now where is that block they said was in some clearing here." He asked out loud. He figured he could try his newfound strength against a supposedly unbreakable block that was in a clearing in the forest he heard about from the townspeople. He had reached what he supposed was the clearing but he had yet to find the block. It was a large clearing with green grass and a large pond, but there was no block there.

He searched for thirty minutes, finding no trace of the large block. Sweating in the sun he decided he could as well take a dip in the pond. He quickly discarded his jumpsuit and readied himself for a dive by the border of the pond, not feeling like testing the water first. The air was warm and the sun was shining so the water was most likely a nice temperature.

At first the cool water felt nice to his warm body as he landed in it, but it soon turned unpleasant as his feet after just a few seconds started to numb at a freezing sensation. Looking down he saw a large block, it was not of stone but rather ice. In the ice he could see a sword and underneath there was a large shadow. Soon he felt the numbness from his feet spread from his feet upwards. Naruto quickly swam to the edge of the water and climbed up from the nearly freezing waters. _'I got to get Ero-sennin here, he might know what it is, plus that sword looked neat.' _

* * *

"Ero-sennin!" the loud voice of Naruto rang out for the second time that day near the female onsen. _'What is it now? I thought I dealt with him earlier,'_ the white haired hermit thought glumly as he once again saw the females rush off, it had taken them an hour before they returned. He decided the kid better have something good for interrupting him or else he would have hell to pay. 

"What is it now gaki?" he asked the boy who seemed to be rather thrilled over something, causing the hermit to become interested.

"I found this clearing in the forest and there was a pond there which I decided to take a swim in but then I found this freezing cold block in there, nearly froze my feet of." The boy said.

"Feh, whatever gaki," the white haired man said, his curiosity dead, as he turned back to the onsen.

"But there is this sword in the block and a blurry shadowy shape." Naruto continued. The man's interest was piqued once again. _'A block with a sword in eh,'_ he thought. Somewhere in his mind a bell of recognition rang, but he just couldn't place it.

"Show me," he demanded. Soon Naruto led the man through the forest towards the clearing. It took them twenty minutes to reach the clearing with the pond.

"In there Ero-sennin." Naruto said and pointed towards the pond. They both walked to the pond and just as Naruto said there was a block made of some semi-transparent material with a sword and a blurry shadow shape. The white haired man bent down and felt the water, it was near freezing.

"You bathed, in this?" he questioned. Seeing the boy nod he just shook his head. "Well let's see if we can do anything about this now then." He said before he rapidly started to flash through hand seals.

"Ne, what are you going to use Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked, receiving no response from the man he was about to ask more loudly but was interrupted.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu," the man said as a large dragon rose from the pond, draining the small pond completely, leaving a large block of what appeared to be ice in its place. The dragon disappeared through the forest, its purpose fulfilled. The hole left after the pond was about five meter deep and ten meter wide. Both the boy and the man studied the block, its contents more visible now, but still pretty blurry. But they could make out that the shadow they had seen before was a dark clad human with several objects sticking out of him. Nearly at the top of the block was a long double edged sword with a dark purple handle and a silvery blade that gave of a red shine.

"Do you think we can melt that block?" Naruto asked. The sword indeed seemed very fanciful and its apparent owner was most certainly dead by now.

"Only one way to find out," was the reply from the man before he started running through another set of hand seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu," he said and a toad taller than the man appeared.

"What are you doing? Are you going to crush it?" Naruto asked.

"No, watch and learn." The man said before going into another set of seals, telling the toad he needed oil. "Katon: Gamayu Endan," he declared as the toad shot oil at the block that he ignited. It wasn't long until the ice started to melt slowly under the fire. Naruto decided to stand by the hole so he could tell the man when to stop so he didn't incarnate the human trapped within the block. It wasn't until five minutes later when he deemed it close enough. As the fire dissipated the toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Um, Ero-sennin you don't think the sword might have melt by the fire?" Naruto asked, remembering the blade that had been lying almost at the top of the block which was decimated so it almost was only a cover around the now obviously male human standing there.

"Logically it should have melted," was the response he got, "I think we should wait until tomorrow before we look through the stuff though, it should still be pretty hot if they haven't melted. So let's head back here tomorrow, I doubt it's going anywhere."

The two males started to walk back, Naruto giving the place a last glance. He really wanted to have a closer look at that sword, it was unlike the sword's used by most ninja, only the stuff used by the seven swordsmen were resembling it, though theirs were as long as it theirs were also arguable much bigger in all other dimensions as well. At least from what he had seen up to this point from the swordsmen he had seen.

* * *

The next morning Naruto awoke early and found that his sensei was still asleep. Now he really wanted to go back to the clearing. 

"Ero-sennin!" he yelled into the ears of his sensei. With a start the older man jumped out of his futon.

"What is it Naruto? Is Akatsuki here?" he asked his apprentice.

"No, we're going to look in that clearing now." Naruto said matter-of-factly, "So come on."

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming gaki." He said as he walked after his running student.

When they arrived at the place they found in exactly like they left it the day before. Looking down at the dried bottom however revealed that ice had melted completely and lying there was the man, or rather teenaged boy, that had been frozen within the ice cube. Now they could clearly distinguish what it had been that was sticking out around him, it was kunai and shuriken, even a katana was sticking out from his stomach.

"Okay, the guy is definitely dead," the white haired man deadpanned before he and his apprentice jumped down into the hole. After they had looked around a little they found the sword that had been lying atop. Just as Naruto was about to touch the sword a raspy voice was heard from behind them.

"D-Don't… touch… that blade," was muttered in-between ragged breaths. Turning around to find the source they only saw the body of the dead boy. Though they knew that both couldn't have imagined that it was impossible for the dead to speak. However observing the body they saw that every few seconds or so the body moved, only slightly but it was movement, just as if he was alive and breathing. They both cautiously moved towards the body. Naruto carefully laid his two fingers towards the older boy's neck and felt for a pulse from the pale boy. The skin was cold, obviously, but there was a faint pulse from the boy.

"Jiraiya, he's alive but just barely." Naruto said, for once calling his sensei by his name, but given the situation the said man could not rejoice over it but instead he had to think out a way to stabilize the boy. He was no Tsunade, but he figured that heating up the boy and removing the weapons might help.

"Alright Naruto, you remove the weapons and I get some firewood and one of the sleeping bags." Jiraiya declared before the used shunshin to disappear.

Naruto started with carefully removing the weapons stuck in the boy, he could count that there were at least fifteen weapons sitting in various places. Every time he removed a kunai or shuriken the boy hissed, ten minutes later ten kunai and six shuriken later all that remained was the katana. Naruto was about to reach for the handle and draw it out from the boy as he had turned him around to be able to do so when a hand stopped him.

"Don't… It needs to… be there for… else I will bleed… to death." The boy said between his ragged breaths with his weak voice. As Naruto reflected on this he found it strange, the wounds from the kunai and shuriken had healed rather quick, nearly as fast as he himself was healed he remarked. The grip on his arm was weak but he noticed that the boy was slightly warmer than before. Just then with a whirl of leaves Jiraiya appeared behind him with a sleeping bag, a pile of wood and some medical supplies.

"Why haven't you taken out the katana yet?" Jiraiya asked as he deposited the wood and sleeping bag beside the boy.

"He said he would bleed to death then?" Naruto responded.

"What does this gaki know about that," Jiraiya remarked.

"I am… a medic-nin… and I know… I've lost… too much… blood…" was the now very weak response from the boy, growing weaker as he spoke.

"Quick, give him this," Jiraiya said, handing Naruto two red pills. "Now, can we take it out now then?" Jiraiya asked upon seeing the boy swallow the pills. Seeing a nod from the boy he took out bandages and told Naruto to draw out the katana as carefully as he could, as to not cut a wider wound. As soon as the katana was out the cloth around the midriff was taken away and soon thereafter bandaged. As soon as that was done the two Konoha ninja started a fire and had the now sleeping boy in the sleeping bag so he could regain body heat faster.

* * *

Two hours later the boy's pale complexion had disappeared and his skin had turned into a healthy color close to that of Naruto's. Upon further inspection on the boy they had found a scratched Kirigakure Hitai-ate on his persons and several scrolls, most of them being weapon scrolls. Naruto was just about to reach for the purple sword again when the boy woke up again. 

"Don't touch it," he said without any of his previous weakness in his voice not even looking in his direction, rather looking around in the pit in which he sat. He saw a white haired man turned towards him and behind him was an orange clad blond. When the blond turned towards him he couldn't help but let out a surprised yelp. "Konoha no Kīroi Senkō!" he cried out pointing at the blond, receiving a look that plainly said he thought he was insane. "But you look very short and young," he added with an afterthought.

"Short, I'll give you a piece of my mind," Naruto cried out angrily but was stopped by Jiraiya.

"No he's not the Konoha no Kīroi Senkō. But you seem to know about the Yondaime Hokage?" Jiraiya asked while he restrained Naruto.

"Yondaime? Konoha no Kīroi Senkō is the Yondaime Hokage?" the boy asked perplexed.

"How long have you been in that block of ice?" Naruto asked, now a lot calmer though Jiraiya still kept a hand on his shoulder for safety measures.

"I don't know, I used a jutsu I had read about that forms a dome of ice that can freeze nearly anything in seconds forming an ice prison, though I can't seem to remember it anymore, then it's all blank. Before that I fought against some Kirigakure ANBU that forced me to use that jutsu to defend myself." The boy explained.

"Was there still a war between Iwa and Konoha at that time?" Jiraiya asked receiving a nod, "Then it was around seventeen years ago." Jiraiya deduced.

"WHAT!?" the boy yelled out sitting up, promptly falling back when he felt his strength leave him. "I am only sixteen, that's more than I've lived."

"So you're a Kirigakure nukenin then?" Jiraiya asked him.

"Yeah, after the Mizukage tried to assassinate me I fled. Get this, I a faithful Jōnin, is the target of an assassination. The Mizukage is a real paranoid guy I tell you, soon he's going to try to kill the seven swordsmen too." The boy said.

"So what's your name?" Naruto asked.

"You know, it's impolite to ask somebody's name before you say your own." Was the response he got from the nukenin.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage," the blond declared, "and this is…" he continued but was cut off by Jiraiya. Only one thought crossed his mind _'Oh no, not again,'_

"I am Myouboku Mountain's monk of the toad spirits. Also know as the gama-sennin, Jiraiya-sama." The white haired man said as he performed a dance.

"My name is Sūn Sousuke," the boy said.

"Sousuke-san, don't listen to Ero-sennin's talk about his mightiness, he's just a super pervert though he knows some great stuff." Naruto told the boy.

"What do you mean?" Sousuke questioned.

"Just look." Naruto said as he put his hand in a familiar hand seal. "Oiroke no Jutsu!" He declared as he transformed into a beautiful blonde woman. Immediately Jiraiya adapted a lecherous grin as he ogled the transformed Naruto who soon released the jutsu making Jiraiya cry out in disappointment.

"I see," Sousuke said trailing of.

"So how are you feeling Sousuke-san?" Jiraiya asked as he had snapped back to normal.

"Tired and sore, I doubt I am able to move for at least two weeks." He responded.

"Well gaki, seems like we'll have to stay here for some more time then," Jiraiya said to Naruto giving him a grin.

"What!? We were supposed to leave today!" Naruto screamed.

"Are you telling me we should leave him alone here? We can't just abandon the guy when it was we who found him." Jiraiya argued, _'I can't lose this, I want to see more of the ladies here, the next place we're leaving for might make it impossible for me to get any more "research" done.' _He thought for himself.

"Fine," Naruto relented, it was all true, they couldn't let him stay behind, at least in his current state.

"Where were you leaving for?" Sousuke asked, he felt bad for making the boy stay since it seemed like he really would like to leave, however the old man seemed less eager.

"We were leaving for Sunagakure for his training, though he can perform it here still." Jiraiya said. "Well we better take you with us now so we can get to the inn."

Naruto was picking up the equipment lying around and put it in a bag but as he was about to pick up the sword he was interested in he was stopped yet again by Sousuke.

"Don't, no one but me can touch that blade unless its sheathed, so if you could take me to it and give me the sheath that should have been on my back." Sousuke explained. It took Naruto some time to find the sheath in question but afterwards he gave it to Sousuke before he lifted the older boy to the place where the sword lay. Soon the blade was within its sheath and handed to Naruto. "There, now don't unsheathe the blade though."


	2. Recuperating

It was ten days since they found Sousuke in the forest and Jiraiya couldn't be happier. He had gotten much more research done in the last ten days than he had been able to in three months time without Naruto screaming 'Ero-sennin' scaring away the females.

* * *

Naruto was in the hotel tending to the older boy who still was pretty much refined to the bed. Sousuke had healed faster than he thought he would, being able to walk with the help of crutches but his muscles just weren't up to par for longer walks. So he had spent the last days mostly in bed, reading some books he had found lying around in the room. 

"So when do you think you will be up and about Sousuke-san?" Naruto asked as he looked up from the sword he had been looking on.

"A couple of days and I will be able to perform light exercises, I should be able to walk by myself in two days though." Was the response he got from the injured nuke-nin.

"Why do you have so many scrolls, it's like forty of them in total, all of them seems to be used!" Naruto asked looking at the pile of scrolls that that they had found on Sousuke's person.

Sousuke just finished reading the papers and was about to read a bunch of papers he had found that seemed to be of similar nature as the books. _'This Icha Icha stuff sure is interesting,'_ he thought to himself.

"It's never anything wrong with being well prepared. One of those scrolls contains my favorite nodachi and some of the finest katana and wakizashi I have. Around twenty of the scrolls contain shuriken and kunai. The rest is…" Sousuke suddenly had a star struck look as something major had just dawned on him.

"What is it Sousuke-san?" Naruto asked. Wondering what it was that prompted him to stop talking.

"Just give me the scrolls with red seals on them," was the command given to him. Naruto did as he was told and soon eighteen scrolls found a place in the lap on Sousuke. "Now where is it?! I know it's here somewhere."

"What are you looking for?"

"Ah! There it is!" Sousuke cried out in victory holding a scroll. He quickly bit his thumb and streaked blood over the seal, unraveling the scroll. There was only three items sealed within the scroll, surprising Naruto as all the scrolls he had been able to open had been filled to the last centimeter, though it had only been what he supposed was the kunai and shuriken holding scrolls and one containing a couple of katana and wakizashi pairs.

"What is it? Is it some really powerful weapons?" Naruto asked.

"No, much better, just look," Sousuke exclaimed as he smeared some blood over the sealed items. With a puff of smoke three books came into existence with a purple frame, all of them sporting the name 'Engagements' with a different volume and a all to familiar, at least to Naruto, red symbol on the backside.

"Ah, you're a pervert just as Ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed pointing at Sousuke. "I shouldn't have taught you that jutsu." He added almost inaudible.

"Pervert?" Sousuke questioned befuddled as he held the books. "There isn't anything especially perverted with these books!" He stated.

"Then why do they have that!" Naruto said, pointing to the red emblem.

"Huh? That just means they aren't supposed to be read by underage. But I just say to hell with it. Here let me show it, this was actually a big hit when I still was 'alive'." Sousuke said as he handed Naruto volume one.

Naruto cautiously took the book opened up the first page. To say that he was surprised was an understatement, the book wasn't like he expected it at all. True to what Sousuke said the book wasn't very perverted, only the occasional perversion occurred during the span of the book, and it all seemed liked it really did belong there as well, not as Jiraiya's Icha Icha. The reason why it had the emblem he supposed was due to the huge amounts of blood and gore featured throughout the book, courtesy of the action. Just as he was finished and was about to ask for the second book he saw Jiraiya standing looking down at him impatiently.

"Oi, Ero-sennin, I didn't notice you there." Naruto said embarrassedly as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. He noticed a smiling Sousuke who pointed at the clock, revealing that Naruto just spent the entire day reading the book.

"Yeah, so I've noticed," Jiraiya huffed, "Really what could be so consuming, for you not to detect the presence of me, nothing short of Icha Icha should have that effect."

"Well it was this book Sousuke gave to me, though it have the same symbol as your books it's much better than yours." Naruto responded.

"Really, what's its name?" Jiraiya asked, intent on killing of the one who apparently had beaten him and his books, at least in his pupil's eyes. _'Damn it, no one beat's Icha Icha in its category!' _

"Engagements" Naruto told him, instantly capturing Jiraiya's attention.

"But that thing isn't even in print anymore, it's like eighteen years since it was popular and it's not even finished yet. Only three volumes were released of the stuff. True it's really good, though it doesn't even compete in the same class as Icha Icha." Jiraiya said. _'Phew, thought it was a threat to me for a moment.'_

"But if it came into print it would surely beat yours." Naruto said.

"Actually Naruto, I have to say that they would pretty much tie." Sousuke said as he said his first words in the conversation. "They both compete in different genres, Engagements is an action series featuring someone who strikingly resembles a younger Kīroi Senkō and is a manga, Icha Icha on the other side is an erotic novel, and thus they have different audiences. Besides just as you actually yourself stated, it's a big _if_ it came to print now."

"Then what if one were to combine the two books?" Naruto asked. "Wouldn't that result in like super large sales?" Receiving no response from his two companions he just saw them standing, or sitting as Sousuke's case was, with a glazed over look in their eyes and he could even swear he saw some drool leaving their mouths.

"The profits of that!" Jiraiya exclaimed as he dried his mouth with his arm. "Just think, 'Icha Icha Engagements', the perfect mix. Too bad I can't draw." Then in an instant his demeanor changed to that of a depressed. Though soon it was replaced by a more sinister. "Naruto, you don't happen to be good at drawing are you? I heard that you painted the Hokage monument." He asked innocently.

"No," was the flat reply from Naruto.

"Sousuke, can you draw?" Jiraiya asked, turning towards the bedridden boy. He received no answer though, instead he saw the boy leaned over something working hastily with his hands. He soon walked over to the boy and as he reached the bed he got a sheet of paper pressed into his face.

"Answer enough?" Sousuke questioned. Jiraiya carefully inspected the sheet, it was obviously a rough sketch, but it was good, and the style was familiar somehow. The scene he realized was from his latest book, one of the more detailed scenes actually.

"Boy, you're good. I recognize the style from somewhere." Jiraiya said. Sousuke pointed to the book Naruto still held. "You've copied Han-Wu's style?" Jiraiya questioned.

"No," was the bland reply from Sousuke. Slowly the wheels started turning in Jiraiya's head as he started connecting the strings. Looking around him he saw several other sheets of paper sprayed around, and it wasn't his notes. The boy had been frozen for around seventeen years. The Engagements series had stopped being published after a year of production, the author Han-Wu disappeared without a trace, which was seventeen years ago as well. The boy in front of him painted in the same style, though his name was Sousuke. Then like a ton of bricks everything fell in place, the author of Engagements used another name for his books, just as he did.

"You're Han-Wu!" Jiraiya screamed, making Sousuke cringe at the volume but he was still nodding.

"What? You made this?" Naruto questioned.

"Yeah, the other seventeen scrolls contain book four through seven in its unedited form." Sousuke said.

"So what's your real name then gaki, Sousuke or Han-Wu?" Jiraiya questioned.

"Both of them are my real name. Sousuke is my shinobi name used in public, Han-Wu though was the name given to me by my father. I decided to use it as my pen name as not many knew me under that name."

"I see." Jiraiya said. "Then I only have one important question for you!" Jiraiya declared, pausing for effect, "Will you co-write Icha Icha Engagements with me?" The question caused Naruto to face fault and Sousuke to smile.

"With pleasure. Now lets get down to the important stuff, what to take from our series in this combination and finalizing a contract." Sousuke said.

"I'm going to bed." Naruto declared. _'I definitely shouldn't have taught him that technique' _He declared in his mind as he walked into his own room.

* * *

"Okay, I have to say, your fighting scenes are definitely out of the question, those are better left to me though you will write the plot with some assistance of me." 

"I know, though they can't be as bloody as yours were either. But we need to retain the loss of articles during the fights with the fairer sex."

"I think we actually should have more romance than yours have, then the book might appeal to the kunoichi as well, I heard that I had quite a number of female readers."

"Well that was because you had Kīroi Senkō in yours."

"I know, though now that he's out, can't dishonor a dead guy you know, we have to find another main character, someone who resembles him, but isn't him."

"Yes I totally agree, can't dishonor my dead student. I also feel like this is best left like a running series, aiming for more than thirty books. Just think of the profits then."

"You know character design should fall under my jurisdiction don't you agree?"

"I am content as long there is action and I get to decide how it plays out."

"You know, Naruto looks a lot like the Kīroi Senkō. How about we take him and alter him a little for the sake of the story, what I've been told we could use some of his experiences, and it was he who came up with this magnificent idea."

"That's… actually not a bad idea, I like it."

"I think we should give him ten percent of our winnings, then split the rest evenly between us."

"Sounds fair."

"Okay so here is the finalized version. I take care of Character design and how the action scenes look. You decide the plot and the outcomes, though I should have a final say in everything just as you have in everything I make. The books contain a moderate amount of blood. You and I both take forty-five percent of the earnings each and Naruto gets ten percent for us using him and for coming up with the idea in the first place. Do you know who would be willing to publish?"

"All sounds good to me, we have a contract partner. And I do know who would want to publish. I would bet one million ryō that my publisher would be interested in it, and I should mention that they have been wondering where Engagements volume four are, and now then up to volume seven."

"You mean you are publishing under my old publishing company? It still exists?"

"Yup, and I think they still are waiting for your books to arrive."

"Where is the office located now?"

"Konoha"

"Then I need to find a courier-nin and send Engagements four to seven so they can edit them. I want you to get working on a new story as soon as you can at the side of the ordinary Icha Icha."

"I only have one question though, how are we going to collaborate?"

"Easy, I follow you guys and help Naruto train, thus we can split the time. Then you can do 'research' and writing for a day while I train him and then we switch where I do the drawing you train him, and train him seriously, I've heard what you've done for the last three months from him."

"Okay, that could work out."

* * *

It had taken Sousuke a total of twenty days before he had fully recovered, but at last they were setting out from the village they had stayed at. Naruto was in a happy mood though he just had spent nearly four months wasting his time he had gotten himself a new friend and sensei. His new sensei was currently walking beside him in his newly purchased black hakama and white gi, sword strapped to his back. 

"So what are you going to teach me Sousuke-sensei?" Naruto asked as they walked on the road in the general direction of Sunagakure.

"I am going to teach you how to wield two swords technique I myself developed called the Mameiryū." Sousuke said. Jiraiya listened in interest, Kenjutsu was something that could be beneficial in case Naruto fought Orochimaru who could use his Kusanagi.

"So when are we starting training?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Now, though not active training until we reach our destination." Sousuke told Naruto as he took out one of his scrolls with a green seal on it. He quickly unsealed four thin straps from the scroll. "Here put these on your arms and legs."

Naruto did as he was told. "So what are these for?" he questioned as he didn't understand what they were for.

"Wait a second and you'll see." Sousuke said smiling as he reached for the bands with his hand.

Naruto saw the chakra coming out from Sousuke's hands for a second being absorbed into the bands. "What's supposed to happen?" he questioned. All he received was something he in a soon to be future dubbed 'the evil glint of impending doom' from Sousuke, making his skin crawl before with a sudden pull from his arms he fell to the ground.

"Sure is nice eh?" Sousuke asked innocently. Behind him Jiraiya stood laughing at his blond student.

"What did you do?" Naruto asked as he slowly rose.

"Just added a weight of twenty kilos to each limb, it really isn't that much, and no using chakra to enhance the muscles either. I used to have one hundred fifty kilos, though that was, and still is, because of a special condition I have. It's somewhat similar to you and Kyuubi." Both Naruto and Jiraiya stared at the boy, they hadn't told him that Naruto held the Kyuubi and outside Konoha it wasn't a well known thing. And just what did he mean similar to Kyuubi, was he also a jinchūriki?

"So you're also a…" Naruto started but was cut of when Sousuke lifted his hand.

"No, I am not. I had at one point another being sealed within me that somewhat possessed the same power as a bijū, though much weaker. Now the main reason as to why I have a somewhat similar condition as you is that my mother was a jinchūriki of the Gobi. Some of the traits were transferred to me, such as the healing abilities. Most of the traits have been sealed away in a seal that I control, that's the tattoo I have in my forehead." Sousuke explained. Naruto was surprised while Jiraiya was awed, this was the first time he heard of a descendant of a jinchūriki. _'This is indeed going to be interesting,' _he couldn't avoid thinking.

"Well then let's go now that you've managed to stand up Naruto," Jiraiya exclaimed sensing they would learn more later on.

"Hai, Ero-sennin," Naruto said as he trudged slowly with the weights. He could feel the leer that Sousuke directed at him seeing him struggle with the weights. _'I'm gonna pay him back for this.' _Was all that ran through his mind as they slowly traveled to Suna.

* * *

It was five months since Naruto left Konohagakure no Sato with Jiraiya and the village hadn't been as quiet as it was in years. 'Without the energetic Uzumaki Naruto it just wasn't the same as it used to be,' the Godaime Hokage thought as she peered out over the village that she bossed over. She had just finished a fight with her mortal enemy, paperwork, and emerged victorious. She felt that she could take a break. 

"Shizune!" she yelled. Moments later her attendant emerged from the door.

"What is it Tsunade-sama?" she asked.

"Come on, we're going for some food and sake." Tsunade commanded, leaving the office with Shizune in tow.

"But Tsunade-sama, the work?"

"All done. It's Thursday today, right?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes Tsunade-sama."

"Perfect." Tsunade exclaimed joyfully. Shizune just had a puzzled look wondering what could make the Godaime Hokage exclaim something joyfully. As she followed her master throughout Konoha they ended up outside a barbeque restaurant. From the inside loud noises from conversations could be heard, the voices slightly familiar but she couldn't place them.

"What are we doing here Tsunade-sama?" Shizune questioned.

"Eat of course, and meet some people," Tsunade said as she opened the door and walked in followed by Shizune. Soon Shizune saw who they were meeting, the remnants of the rookie nine and team Gai. The Jōnin instructors of the teams were there as well, though not the tardy sensei of team seven, Kakashi.

"Tsunade-shishou, what brings you here?" Sakura exclaimed as she saw her master coming towards their table. _'I haven't forgotten a training session that was now right?' _She questioned herself, she was utterly confident she hadn't a scheduled training session this afternoon. The conversations had died down when they saw the Hokage approach the table.

"I'm here to eat, even a Hokage must eat," Tsunade said, "Mind if we join you?"

"No, go ahead Hokage-sama," Kurenai said. Soon the conversations flared up as the two females sat down at the table.

"Oi! Waiter, give me some sake here!" Tsunade exclaimed loudly.

"So, Hokage-sama, have you heard anything from Jiraiya-sama?" Asuma asked Tsunade casually, effectively silencing the conversations around the table. Just as she was about to open her mouth to answer a sudden gust flew through the room rustling their clothes. Before them stood a frantic Hatake Kakashi. He seemed be unable to form words as he waved his arms in the air holding a book with the familiar red emblem in his hands, though this one was pink in color instead of the usual orange.

"What is it Kakashi?" Tsunade asked him.

"New… New… New…" he said incoherently as he still waved his hand holding the book.

"What Kakashi, a new book?" Kurenai said, seeing the nod she was about to pummel him. _'That's what made him so exalted!?'_ she mentally screamed. The other Kunoichi was of a similar sentiment.

Kakashi seemed to wind down a little, trying to collect himself. "Gai, you must buy this book, I promise you won't regret it." he managed to puff out.

"I will never do such an unyouthful act my eternal rival." Gai exclaimed.

"No, no, you get me wrong," Kakashi said, "It isn't Jiraiya's book, it's he, they released his books, four of them today."

"Then what is that?" Asuma asked and pointed towards the book Kakashi held in his hand.

"Ah, wrong book. That one is the new from Jiraiya though. But behold." Kakashi said sweat dropping as he saw he held the pink book he bought as well. He pocketed the pink book and took out four books with a purple frame though they sported the red emblem, marking them as books that should be read by adults.

"Ah! Do you read such unyouthful books Gai-sensei?" Lee exclaimed, fear evident to his voice.

"Ah, but Lee, these books aren't unyouthful but youthful." Gai exclaimed. Some of the older Shinobi instantly recognized the book though all the genin, and one chūnin, were perplexed. "These are the great books called Engagements," Gai proclaimed.

"So that guy released his books at last, why'd he take so long?" Asuma said.

"He said that he laid the project on ice for some time, though now he's back but he won't make new ones very often, he apparently have an obligation to perform and are working on another book together with another author." Kakashi said. The spectators could swear on that they saw Kakashi's visible eye shape into a heart at the last piece of information.

"Can we have a look at those?" Gai asked.

"Sure, just don't harm them," Kakashi said in a voice that promised pain, "Or else I'll kill you." The last tidbit accompanied by a massive killing intent, the genin thought that if the books were harmed Kakashi would go through with his threat.

The Jōnin and Hokage all looked through the books with great interest as Kakashi seated himself between Sakura and Tenten.

"So Sakura how is the training with Tsunade going?" he asked as he took out the pink book they had seen earlier.

"It's going well, though her strength is freaky, I swear she's going to kill me." Sakura responded quietly.

Asuma had quickly lost interest in the books Kakashi let them read, instead his interest was on the pink one he held in his hands. He still hadn't had a chance to see its name. "Oi, Kakashi, come here," he said as he leaned over the table. Kakashi who leaned forward was unable to act when he saw the true purpose of Asuma's call, taking his newly bought book. Asuma nimbly took the book and leaned back, the barbeque protecting him from Kakashi jumping at him. It was rather pathetic when Kakashi started wailing about how he didn't even had read a single line of the book, not to mention even opened it.

"A new unyouthful book from that unyouthful author Jiraiya-sama." Gai as he caught sight of the book. Across the table the genin, and chūnin had gotten the purple books. It was soon revealed that these books were different than the Icha Icha books. It was a manga skillfully drawn featuring the Yondaime Hokage. It was almost entirely based on action and drama, containing little or no perversion what they could tell.

"This guy Han-Wu has made pretty good books, just look at the fighting. It is accurate in almost everything except the amounts of blood, though I like it." Kiba said. He received only affirmatives from the other Konoha-nin.

"Really detailed weapons too." Tenten said, more focusing on the weapons than the fight themselves. The weapons were drawn with great accuracy of their real looks, almost as if he studied every weapon before he used them.

"How can an author be so good at details though, they are seldom ninja themselves." Sakura questioned. The younger konoha-nins conversation about the books was however cut short when a loud exclamation from Gai about unyouthfulness rang throughout the restaurant, and probably Konoha as well. Men around Konoha looked up from their newly bought pink books, only to shrug it off as nothing.

"What is it Gai-sensei?" Lee asked. Maito Gai sat as if petrified in his seat. "What happened to Gai-sensei?"

Asuma took a deep breath and held the pink book in front of him. "We bring you new Icha Icha series, Icha Icha: Engagements. This series combines the great plot prowess of the author of Icha Icha Paradise and Violence with the graphic style of Engagements, all in color." Asuma said reciting the text on the front of the book. The elder kunoichi who had seen a little in the book was seething, to put it lightly.

"The guy just fell in my eyes," the younger kunoichi said simultaneously.

"Wait, there is more," Asuma said, half smiling. He flipped up the first page and read the gibberish that usually was ignored. "Plot and text; J-sama, character design and pictures; Han-Wu."

"So what, he's the one drawing the thing, like we didn't get it before." Kiba exclaimed.

"No, no, the thing is this." Asuma said smiling pushing up a page centimeters from Kiba's face, making him the only one able to see it. As Asuma drew back the book he closed it before anyone else had a chance to see the picture.

"What was it Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked hesitantly. At first he turned around to answer her but as soon as he saw he face he turned down his head and faced the floor. Kiba's face was a crimson color that would make a tomato proud as he sputtered. Kakashi couldn't help but laugh at the scene, the obnoxious Kiba was sputtering, over one picture, the book was obviously up to par with Kakashi's expectations if it could reduce one of the loudest and most brash genin to a sputtering wreck in a few seconds. Though he did not understand as to why Kiba would have a problem facing his own teammate.

"What's so troublesome making him quiet?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Sure you wanna know?" Asuma asked them, seeing only nods, even though they were hesitant, except Kakashi who swung his head up and down furiously. "Okay, here we go." Asuma said dramatically. He swung open the book on its first page.

"NANI!!!" was heard throughout Konoha from several females. Every genin was sitting there looking at the picture that they were shown. They each stared down at an older version of the Kunoichi seated at the table and other kunoichi in manga form. That wasn't the upsetting part though, it was their state of dress, or rather undress. Kakashi just sat there, having the modesty to actually blush, though most could not be seen because of his mask. _'Such detail, he sure is skilled. I hope he lives long enough to finish this series.'_ He thought to himself.

"You haven't seen it all. These first pages are just showing a future to come, many of these characters will either never come into play or only be featured little time." Asuma said. He flipped up another page. This page was much nothing upsetting, just some weapons and a picture of Jiraiya. The next page featured the genin sitting there and Shikamaru grown up but dressed. The next page made Tenten seethe, she wanted this Han-Wu's head on a platter. It was a picture of her and that Suna-kunoichi, Temari, making out in an onsen. _'Gotta hand it to him, he knows his stuff.' _The males thought when they looked on the picture. There were several more pictures of that nature. Then they happened upon a picture that resembles the Yondaime, though it definitely wasn't him. _'It's Naruto,'_ Kakashi concluded when he saw the whisker marks and the orange attire he wore. Underneath the picture there was a text that was almost impossible to read but Kakashi used his sharingan enhanced sight to read it, 'Our inspiration for this book'. The next page showed yet again the kunoichi, this time dressed in their panties, which was an improvement compared to some of the other pictures where they featured no wear. They also wore what resembled chakra strings around their necks, held in the hands of one Uzumaki Naruto. That had been the last page which was of that nature, the next page thanking them for buying the limited edition, only printed in fifty copies, the only one featuring those pictures.

"A-S-U-M-A! Hand me the book, now." Kakashi said threatingly as he saw the looks the kunoichi gave the book. He would protect it at all costs. _'Main objective get the book to safety. Survival is not necessary as long as the book makes it to safety. This mission is a double S class mission.' _He said to himself. As soon as he got the book he used Shunshin to get to his apartment.

In the restaurant the atmosphere was to say the least uncomfortable. The kunoichi was after blood, but with no targets. The male shinobi did what they called a 'strategic retreat' though one could argue that it was mindlessly running away in panic. As soon as they were a good distance from the restaurant they all coincidentally ran into each other outside a bookstore with the exception of Lee and Gai. They were all about to say something at the same time blaming coincidence that they were outside the store.

Ten minutes later that all walked away from the store, promising to never tell a soul of what they did. Asuma walked away with pockets slightly heavier than when he came. _'Hehe, knew it,'_ he said to himself.

It was almost time for the store to close when a last customer for the day walked in clad in garb that covered the body of the one wearing it. "What do you want?" the owner asked.

"Engagements one through seven and Icha Icha: Engagements please." Was the response from the customer.

"Sure, here you are, that will be two thousand ryō. You're lucky, that's the last of that Icha Icha book, all sold out, in one day no less." The owner said proudly. He had never had such a great business day as this had been. He saw the customer leave the money on the counter and hurry out the door. _'Even young people buy the book, not that I will stop them because of that age restriction, business is business no matter the age.' _He thought as he looked on the fleeing form.

* * *

A/N: Chapter 2 for you, though it became mostly filler like. And about that tattoo i mentioned, yeah I know I haven't described my OC yet, it will come gradually. Well yeah, Sousuke will have known Zabuza, actually he would have been Zabuza's senior by seven years, so he went through the bloody mist's genin exam. Sousuke is not gonna be almighty, as it is now he'd most likely lose against Kakashi for example (lack of experience), though he will have freaky amount of stamina, nothing compared to Naruto though. The books will actually have a role for the story.  



	3. Training

'_Nearly one and a half month!' _Naruto seethed as he walked through the gates of Sunagakure no Sato. It was all because Ero-sennin had decided they should take a couple of detours and Sousuke, the sadistic bastard he is Naruto concluded, increased his weights by fifty percent.

Sousuke was happily walking behind Naruto. _'Okay, the boy is sweating, thirsty and tired, and Jiraiya is not in the vicinity to berate me for overworking him, perfect.' _He concluded in his mind.

"Oh, Naruto," the blond heard from behind in a sing-song voice that sent shivers down his spine. He had by now connected that voice with torture, and how he hated it.

"Yes Sousuke-sensei, what is it?" he asked with dread. The last time he heard it he ended up running until he fainted, only to be poked at by his new sensei, telling him he was weak.

"You know how I told you I would start the real training when we reached Suna?" Sousuke asked.

"Yes," was the hesitant reply from Naruto as the warning-bells started to chime deep within his mind, he did not like where this were heading.

"Fifty laps around the village, I'll even accompany and help you so you don't slack off." Sousuke said, at first commanding, then softly. _'In other words, he's gonna throw kunai at me,' _Naruto had deciphered his new sensei's way of speaking to some extent, and helping him to not slack off clearly meant, 'I'm going to do something harmful so you're on your toes all the time,' in Sousuke's way of words.

"Yes sensei," Naruto said as he walked out the gate, only minutes after he entered, followed by his sensei. For the first ten laps Naruto was able to ignore his thirst in the unmerciful sun, but as he trudged on around the village his tiredness and thirst made him slow down, if only slightly, it was enough for Sousuke to send a kunai flying at Naruto.

"Come on Naruto, don't slack so much." Sousuke commanded.

"But sensei I'm thirsty." Naruto whined.

"No water," was the response from the ruthless teacher. Naruto had come to realize that Sousuke was really cool and nice guy, when he wasn't teaching you. When he was 'teaching', he was nothing short of a sadistic torture loving person; he was even scarier than Kyuubi. Naruto waged the cons and pros for running away, the cons beat the pros after only one point taken for the cons, if he would run away Sousuke would at least double his training regimen for a couple of days. Naruto silently conceded and continued to run, trying his best to ignore his now aching limps and dry throat.

Four hours later Naruto saw the gate he entered through as he ran the last lap. _'Finally, soon done with it,'_ he thought. Looking up at his teacher he noticed him reaching for his belt. Sousuke removed a bottle from the belt, previously unseen. Naruto watched in silent jealousy as his teacher took away the cork of the bottle and raised the bottle-head to his mouth. Naruto could clearly see the clear liquid rushing out the bottle, landing in his sensei's mouth and occasionally spreading over his face landing in the dry sand that greedily sucked it up. Naruto could feel his swollen tongue longing for the feeling of that clear liquid running over it. Naruto would do anything for some water at the moment.

Sousuke looked at his student as they approached the gate. He smugly smiled as he drank the cool liquid quenching his thirst. He saw the longing and forlorn look his student gave the bottle. "You want some?" he asked. He saw a slight nod from Naruto, "Well you aren't getting any until we reach that gate."

Naruto glared at his teacher, wishing he had the Mangekyo Sharingan, then Sousuke would be in Tsukuyomi this instant. _'Sadistic bastard,' _Naruto thought. Sousuke listened to his student as he mumbled something along the lines of 'the unfairness that crazed Uchiha has all the cool abilities to torture people and he wished that he had the ability to use Tsukuyomi.'

As soon as they reached the gate Naruto slumped into a pile of limbs. Soon he felt Sousuke poking at him sharply. "What is it?" Naruto demanded hoarsely in his tired voice.

"You wanted some water right?" Sousuke asked holding out a bottle. Naruto greedily snatched the bottle and drank it in one sweep. He reveled at the feeling of the cool crystal liquid running over his swollen tongue down in his dry throat. He sat there on the sand for five minutes, nearly passing out.

"Come on, let's move. I'll treat you to some food," Sousuke said. With a surprising vigor Naruto jumped up from his sitting position in the sand.

"Then I want ramen!" Naruto declared.

"I treat, I decide. And we're eating Chinese; dim sum is simply the best." Sousuke said in a no nonsense voice. However the seriousness of the statement fell short when a dreamy look came on Sousuke's face and a small puddle of drool started to collect in the corner of his mouth, just thinking about the Chinese food. "Just hope they have Char Siu Bao in this crappy village though," Naruto heard him mutter as he shook himself out of his reverie.

"Sorry to both of you guys," one of the chūnin guards said, having overheard their loud conversation, "But we don't have either a ramen stand or a Chinese restaurant." That statement alone sent both teenagers bawling to the ground.

"Damn you Ero-sennin/Jiraiya!" they exclaimed loudly at the same time.

Some distance from the gate a white haired man sneezed loudly as he peeped on the females in the onsen located nearby. The loud sneeze scared away the females, as they, rightfully, thought someone was spying on them. The man cursed his luck, and then blamed his followers.

* * *

The two boys had just left from a restaurant after a 'healthy' meal, leaving thirty bowls of soba in their wake. Naruto was ready to fall asleep at any given moment, exhausted after the trip and the run and in addition to this he had just eaten, leaving him very tired. 

"Ne, sensei, can't we find a hotel?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm? You do not want to train anymore Naruto-san?" Sousuke questioned.

"But I just ran fifty laps! And we just came to the place." Naruto complained. Sousuke gave Naruto a thoughtful look. A few moments later a wide smile settled on Sousuke's face. _'Uh oh, not good.' _Naruto decided in his head, he could also testify to that he heard Kyuubi snicker in his head at that moment.

"Sure Naruto-san, lets go and find a hotel, you can just train some extra later instead." Sousuke said sweetly, much too sweetly for Naruto's liking. The duo walked throughout the town looking for a decent hotel and after ten minutes they found one that was deemed suitable. Upon receiving the key Naruto walked quickly to the room and soon was lying collapsed on the bed.

Sousuke walked out of the hotel as soon as he had gotten his key, intent on getting more conditioning training in. He also had his personal mission to fulfill and it was currently his first priority. _'Okay, now then to the most important thing, where do they sell sake?'_ He wondered to himself. After a tour of the city he had soon located a liquor store where he could buy his most desired liquid. He left the store, his pockets definitely lighter then before. _'That'll last me a month or two.'_

* * *

b 

It had been a month since they had arrived in Sunagakure and Naruto had been harshly trained by Sousuke, the first day had been the worst so far though. After his short nap that day he had been forced to run an additional fifty laps around the village and after that there was a countless amount of pushups, sit ups and the like until he fainted from exhaustion. After that Naruto had refrained from complaining about anything Sousuke said. Though the training was gruesome Naruto could tell it was helping him. He was told he would learn kenjutsu but he had actually yet to train with blades, every time he asked he was told he needed to be conditioned for the task before they started. Today seemed to be no different.

"Okay Naruto, today we'll go easy, sixty laps around the village." Sousuke said. Had this been the first day Naruto would complain about the amount of laps, but he was today grateful to his sensei, the last week the amount of laps had been ninety laps around the village. A couple of hours later the two stopped at one of the training fields in Sunagakure.

"What now sensei?" Naruto asked.

"I am going to teach you something very useful that you must have learned before I teach to kenjutsu, how to use a chakra field." Sousuke told him.

"What's that good for?" Naruto questioned. Sure something like Kaiten would be useful but how would that help him with swordsmanship.

"It's something that only a few can use, only people with a ridiculous amount of chakra and learned how to open up most tenketsu. Meaning people like me and now also you, that was why I taught you that chakra control exercise. Now, what our chakra field is going to do is that with it we have a field of chakra around us covering a large area. Within this area you will have full awareness of everything that moves within it, not even a genjutsu can be cast within as it is disrupted by the chakra, the only drawback is that no chakra based techniques can be used by the caster. Now what I want you to do are that you relax and feel your chakra and let it flow, make it envelope you and your surroundings, just like this." Sousuke said. At first Naruto didn't see any differences but after a few seconds Sousuke was enshrouded in his blue chakra. The field started to grow around him and soon it had covered an area stretching ten meters from him.

"This is what I can manage with my current ability." Sousuke told Naruto who just stood and watched in amazement. Now he really got why Sousuke forced him to learn how to be able to learn that control exercise. He was about to ask him a question regarding the field but it seemed like Sousuke knew what he had in mind. "And no, you can't stop weapons with it, at least at this stage, however if you use the same amount chakra and compress it to a thin layer you are theoretically able to do it, though only one have had the chakra to be able to do it, and then the shield was working both ways making attacks from the user useless as well and it took an amount of time to put up. Now start!"

Naruto started to relax and started to let the chakra flow as he had been taught using what he knew from the exercise, it took him an hour but eventually he was able to see a soft blue shimmer cover him. He tried to press out more and saw the chakra flare up covering nearly a meter around him. Ten minutes he collapsed to the ground exhausted, he lay there panting when he felt a sharp pain to his stomach. Looking meekly to what it was that pained him he saw Sousuke's foot there.

"Do not, and I repeat, do not push to much chakra into it, it may result in chakra exhaustion and death, the whole thing is about using an exact amount for an even and long lasting sphere. The sphere grows as you use the technique over time as the tenketsu gets used to the constant usage, that's the reason why yours is smaller than mine, I've been using it for years and since my body was in stasis when I was frozen I've kept my body at least somewhat fit and my chakra system is still the same. You on the other hand have just learned how to use it and it will take a while before your body adapts, I estimate that in one year's time you will have the same area as me, depending on how much you train of course. However if you use the red chakra your field will increase around fivefold, mostly due to its higher potency, but I advice you not to as after an hour or two you will pass out, and be out for five days no matter your amazing healing the strain is to high on the body." Sousuke said. "Now we're going to rest at the hotel until tomorrow and then we continue training this after the warm up, though moderately."

The training continued monotonously for two month's time before they upped and left the village. Apparently it was something along the lines of; 'It was found out Jiraiya was the author of Icha Icha and after the latest book the sister of the Kazekage was out for his blood.' In the time spent there Naruto had managed to increase the field by two meters, Naruto thought this was a great improvement and would easily beat his sensei's estimation, though he was pegged down when he was told the increase was only due to the newly opened tenketsu, as training progressed it would be harder to improve. During the time Naruto only learned only a few jutsu from Jiraiya, Sousuke saw him unfit to learn any jutsu from his repertoire until he had learned to move as a flow; such as the kenjutsu style he was learning required..

* * *

Konoha was in uproar, yet another volume of Icha Icha Engagements had been released only three months after the first volume, a great difference compared to its Icha Icha predecessors. However it wasn't the release of the manga that caused the uproar within the male community and the half cheers within the female one; it was the announcement that the main Icha Icha series had been put on a hold that was the greater evil, or good depending on the point of view, that caused it. Of the two books the newer manga was seen by many females as the lesser evil as it contained much less smut than the main series focusing more on story, action and actually deeper relations, though about eight Konoha kunoichi thought it as a greater evil. 

That day Kakashi was found lying unconscious with the foreword page of Icha Icha Engagements open, the book clutched tightly in his hands. When he was accepted in the hospital he was diagnosed with a severe chock resulting in a mental shut down. And that was only the first case that day.

* * *

"Naruto, you're on a good way to learn the chakra field, your kenjutsu is at least decent and Jiraiya have taught you some good jutsu. I think that it might be time for our first real spar," Sousuke told his student. 

"Yatta! I'm gonna beat you so bad Sousuke-sensei," Naruto loudly declared.

"Yeah, whatever. You are allowed to use all your jutsu and the spar ends when one of us, _you_, is knocked out." Sousuke said as he readied himself by taking out a scroll. He swiped some blood over a part of the opened scroll, a cloud of smoke covering it.

Naruto stood and watched his sensei summon his weapon as he himself took out his two swords given to him six months ago by the same sensei. "You summoned a bokken?" Naruto asked suspiciously. _'How is he supposed to use that against two swords, that thing will be cut to pieces easily.'_

"That's all I am going to need against you, unless you are better than you let on."

Jiraiya watched from the sidelines as was Sousuke riling up Naruto. This was bound to be an interesting spar. The two combatants both flared up their chakra fields, Sousuke's field was about three meters wider than Naruto's but still Naruto's was large stretching twelve meters away from Naruto himself.

"Well then, let's see what you've learned in the fifteen months I've spent training you." Sousuke said as he rushed forward issuing a forward slash that Naruto narrowly dodged.

"Sensei why are you going against what you've taught me? You are attacking full out from the beginning?" Naruto questioned as he dodged another slash that was directed to his mid section and quickly tried to stab his sensei in his right thigh.

"Because this isn't the same style, notice I'm only using one sword, this style is adapted to using a Nodachi instead of a katana, but since I don't want to hurt you, too much that is, I use a bokken," Sousuke explained as he landed a vicious blow on Naruto that stung badly in his side. "Now focus on the battle and not mindless banter, I've told you hundred of times, only focus on the battle, nothing else shall wander within your mind."

The fight continued for an hour with only the occasional grazing blow from Naruto or a stinging smack from Sousuke's bokken. "What do you say if we raise the level a little, you know start using jutsu now, I see you are able to utilize the field well for having my disturbing yours," Sousuke said.

"Sure sensei," the both combatants blue fields disappeared and soon thereafter Naruto sheathed the shorter sword and started to run through a couple of one-handed seals. "Katon: Karyuu Endan!" The attack just missed Sousuke as he used a kawarimi, there was no water nearby and his capabilities with Doton jutsu could be called horrendous if Naruto wanted to be nice about it.

The one-handed seals were thanks to Sousuke who taught Naruto everything he knew about it seeing as otherwise Naruto would be at a severe disadvantage when using his kenjutsu and as an added bonus the sharingan, if encountered, would be unable to copy it. That was the main reason why he was taught it according to Sousuke as he hated copying bastards when they weren't allowed to, that was one reason as to why all Sousuke's own jutsu were seal-less. What he hadn't known was that the Uchiha clan and thus the sharingan were nearly extinct.

"So we're going for the large scale attacks huh, well then here I come," Sousuke declared as he jumped towards Naruto who had hid behind a large rock. He swung the bokken in a wide arc and the attack connected with the large rock just as Naruto jumped away landing awkwardly staring in wonder at Sousuke.

To say Jiraiya was shocked would be one of the understatements of the year, he had just seen Sousuke cleanly split a damn rock that stood five meters high and three meters deep into several smaller pieces. _'That guy has almost the same insane strength as Tsunade's chakra enhanced punches!' _He mentally screamed. His list of, do not mess with too much people had just increased from just one person to containing two persons. He deduced that since Tsunade had been the only one to beat him to near death, then Sousuke could as well. _'Damn those medic-nins and their awful strength!'_

"How… were you able to do that?" Naruto asked shakily.

"That?" Sousuke asked pointing to the pile of rubble that once had been a large rock. Seeing the nod from Naruto he grinned as he explained, "That is the result of conditioning my body for years training with heavy weight and perfecting the technique for the sword arts thus increasing the strength many times, you should be able to do that when you've reached the level in which you use the 150 kilo weights with ease and perfected your swordsmanship to a level where its an art."

'_The guy isn't even amplifying the strikes with chakra and has that strength! No wonder as to why he was a Jōnin when he was twelve,'_ Jiraiya thought as he remembered what he had read in one of older bingo books dated twenty-three years ago. What he got from it was that he was a master of a couple of Kenjutsu styles and had an amazing affinity for three elements, something nearly unheard of. This was truly a big catch if Jiraiya could convince the nuke-nin to join Konoha, thus Konoha would have a skilled sword user which was unusual in the ninja society outside of Kiri. He watched as the fight continued after the explanation from Sousuke and saw how Sousuke blocked Naruto's swords using the bokken with seemingly ease.

"Now for one of my own signature moves, Kaiten-!" Sousuke declared, shocking both Jiraiya and Naruto, that was supposedly a Hyuuga clan secret and it was nothing original if he knew it, however how he had come to knew of that attack was the largest shock to both Konoha-Nins.

Sousuke put the sword behind him pointing backwards to the right, with what would be the edge pointing slightly upwards to the right the sword shining a soft blue, "-kiri!" Sousuke started a swing as the blue light that enveloped the sword grew in intensity. The spin started to accelerate as the sword released a vicious gale of cutting wind that hit Naruto who was unable to dodge or block the blow. The blue light disappeared after just two spins and Sousuke stopped and quickly ran forward to a still dazed Naruto and hit him with a blow that sent him flying into a tree rendering him unconscious.

Sousuke walked up to Naruto and used the unfaultable method of rousing an unconscious Naruto, "Naruto, ramen when you wake up," just as predicted Naruto was up within the minute ready for ramen.

After the ramen Sousuke took Naruto to the clearing in which they fought earlier.

"Sensei what are we doing here again, we just sparred right, there's no way we're doing more training right?"

"We are doing more training you and me are already restored to as usual!" Sousuke declared in finality to his student, "and this is the last thing I personally will teach you, at least in some time."

"What!? You're not going to teach me anymore?" Naruto asked, he felt disappointed, even though the training was hell he knew that he had grown immensely under Jiraiya and Sousuke's tutelage. "How am I going to finish my kenjutsu training without you here?"

"I'll give you a couple of scrolls of my less demanding and personal techniques," Sousuke explained as he gave Naruto ten scrolls. "You know the kage bunshin method right? Seeing as you use them quite a lot." Seeing the face of his student radiate cluelessness he couldn't help but groan. "You mean we've trained for one and a half year and you don't know that you actually learn what your kage bunshin have learned when you dispel them?" The face of Naruto told him all he needed to know, obviously he did not know.

"You can do that!?" Naruto screamed, his mind making up just how useful this could have been.

"Yes though if they are destroyed by force you don't gain the knowledge," Sousuke explained. "Now what I am going to teach you is actually an improved version of that jutsu, Ningen bunshin. What this bunshin do is that you create an actual body that can take a beating, basically you create a human and place a copy of your mind within."

"Wow, that's amazing sensei, then I can easily overpower anyone then," Naruto declared.

"Well you see… this jutsu have a couple of drawbacks compared to kage bunshin. I'll list them for you and then you decide if you want to learn it, and use it." Sousuke said.

"Okay, hit me sensei,"

"First, you need have an unnatural healing ability such as me or a jinchūriki." Sousuke explained. "Second you only make one clone, never more. Third the chakra consumed by the jutsu and that the clone receive is half yours making it half your chakra strength. Fourth is that you don't only sacrifice chakra but a large amount of blood for the jutsu meaning you need a blood pill after using it. The clone lasts until the chakra runs out or it is conventionally killed, it can be maintained for a long amount of time if it eats and function as a normal person does. Now do you want to learn it?"

"Yes, teach me!" Naruto said.

"Then follow closely, one mess up can result in a catastrophe, you are to learn the hand-seals before you use it." Sousuke said and sliced his arm with a kunai. He slowly ran through the hand-seals. It wasn't until over a hundred hand-seals later until he declared "Ningen bunshin," with a sudden rush blood left his arm and started to from into a perfect replica of him. As the blood poured out of the arm he took a blood pill and threw into his mouth.

"Now this is the result of the jutsu," Sousuke explained and showed Naruto how blood gushed out a wound of the clone received from the kunai. "Ah, nearly forgot the most important thing about it, when it is dispelled you will remember everything it have done, even its death. That is the worst part of the jutsu. If it died because of a kunai to the back you will know how it feels, die of chakra exhaustion, you know that feeling as well, it is a double edged sword. Often the user faints, not only of the mental strain of learning everything the bunshin learned but also because they relieve the feeling of death, you can't just dispel them. Now I'll be leaving you with the bunshin, I have some important business to do, see you sometime. Now do the usual training regimen every day and have fun with the weights" With that Naruto's sensei for the last time in a swirl of leafs after he had upped Naruto's weights to a total of one hundred kilos each.

Naruto damned his sensei for being so evil, he had just increased his weights by thirty kilo each rendering him immovable for a time before he managed to stand up during the new strain. He pondered over this new bunshin as he started to go through the long sequence of hand-seals required.. Sure the clone seemed to be really useful but the loss after using it was really intimidating. After a while Naruto decided to have it in his repertoire but not use it unless he felt confident about its backlash would not be a problem and it was a dire emergency that needed the more powerful clone.

"So you decided to not use it?" the Sousuke's bunshin asked. Seeing Naruto nod at him the bunshin smiled. "Well then, let us go back to the camp, Jiraiya will surely be asking about what we were doing. I'm just going to henge into another form and we'll be off."

* * *

In Konoha a jōnin was sitting wallowing in his own pity, apparently not only was the main Icha Icha series on hold but also the Icha Icha Engagement series was on hold since the other author had disappeared, again. Even though he held the third volume in his hands and had all the previous Icha Icha books and loved them he felt as his whole life had been shattered. 

"Jiraiya-sama and Han-Wu-sama why have you forsaken me?" he bellowed over Konoha from the Hokage moment.

"Tsunade-sama, he's there again," Shizune told her master upon hearing Kakashi's, in some weird way, heart wrenching wallowing above Konoha.

"He's been there wallowing for three days now and he's not accepting any missions. I never thought I was going to say this but… I wish Icha Icha was still printing new volumes." The Godaime said.

* * *

A/N: Oh yeah, the OC have left the house after leaving a clone with Naruto. I really don't feel like writing how Naruto trained with my OC for fifteen months, I might give some insight in the occasional flashback. Next chapter will actually be the return to Konoha. My will to write just training isn't all that as I want to get to where I get to write action, romance stuff and all that. (A story is almost never good without at least a little romance in my opinion.)  



	4. Arriving home

Izumo and Kotetsu were sitting at the guard house by the large main gate to Konoha, boringly waiting for their shift to end.

"Kotetsu, you think anything interesting will happen today?"

"Hn? Nah probably nothing special, Kakashi-san will probably swing by and ask if Jiriaya-sama have arrived yet, as per usual routine."

The two chūnin was soon talking about the last Icha Icha book that was released before it was put on hold, it was old yes, but it still held some great interest within the male population within Konoha. They were both engrossed deeply in conversation when they saw three persons enter through the gates.

"Doesn't that look like…" Kotetsu said trailing of as he stared at the persons entering.

"Sure looks like it," Izumo said as he looked at the foremost person entering the village just like his companion. The person walking in front was a around twenty years old woman with long indigo blue hair and hazel eyes. Her body could only be described as perfect by the two guards.

"I never thought that the person in volume three was for real!" Izumo whispered excitedly to his companion who only could nod dumbly. "Even the sword is there."

His companion managed to shake himself out of his reverie and looked at the woman's companions. "Look, isn't that…?"

"No doubt about it, it sure is them." The two guards watched at the retreating backs of the three persons walking down the road

* * *

Sakura was walking down a street when she was stopped by Konohamaru and his team running towards her.

"Sakura-neechan! Where are you going?" the boy asked.

"The village's main gate, I'm going to pick up the afternoon trafficking report for Tsunade-sama," Sakura told them, "You want to come?"

The boy and his companions nodded as the four ninja started to walk towards the main gate. The four of them was talking about the genin's latest mission which was one that Sakura also had to endure during her genin days.

"Good afternoon, Izumo-san, Kotetsu-san." Sakura said as she reached the village gates.

"They're back," was all Kotetsu said.

"Go and take a look around town, you might see something interesting," his companion continued.

"Interesting?" Sakura questioned, _'What might be interesting, unless it is…' _With that thought Sakura ran back into the village, Konohamaru's team on her heels. Only one thought traveled through her mind, _'Is _he_ somehow a part of the reason as to why those books were thought up, printed and published he's going to wish he never was born.'_

* * *

Naruto stood atop a pole over viewing Konoha. The memories were flooding his mind, to him Konoha looked just the same as he left nearly three years earlier. _'Though they've added Baachan's ugly face,'_ he reminded himself as he looked at the Hokage monument.

"Oi Naruto, you aren't getting a little to excited are you?" the blue haired woman asked from below. Up at the top Naruto seemed to not notice the woman's question as he started to scream out.

"Everyone, Uzumaki Naruto have returned!" the boy screamed out.

"Yo!" was heard from the side of Naruto. As he heard that familiar greeting in that lazy sounding voice he quickly turned around and came face to face with Konoha's copy-nin Kakashi.

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto loudly exclaimed as he saw his old sensei from the time when he was in team 7. "You haven't changed at all." The jōnin was currently sitting there reading the last released Icha Icha book, taking some comfort in that he still was able to do at least that.

"You're back," Kakashi stated, "Then Jiraiya-sama…"

"Oh yeah, just remembered something, I have a present for you," Naruto said as jumped over to Kakashi. His hand traveled to his kunai pouch and he drew out a rectangular object. Kakashi couldn't help but to start shaking in anticipation as he received the object.

"This is…"

"That's the latest book in the Icha Icha novel series, first one in three years apparently, though I can't get why he only managed to make one, he was almost only writing or doing his 'research' when we was away until last year." Naruto said thoughtfully, he still hadn't figured out why only one book had been printed. "It's really boring though but you like it right?"

Down at the ground Jiraiya was indignantly brooding. _'That gaki couldn't tell good from bad even if his life depended on it. That book isn't even released yet, I just recently started to get it printed.' _Beside the white haired sannin the blue haired woman was snickering.

"Haha, the kid just totally dissed your book," she said as pointed at him leering.

"Just shut it you big breasted pompous woman," the white haired man said. The woman quickly changed from happy-lucky-go to out-for-your-blood.

"Did you say something, Jiraiya?" she said dangerously as she held a nodachi in her hand that had appeared from a scroll. Her face had contorted from beautiful to dangerous yet beautiful.

"Um, nothing at all Yume-san." Jiraiya quickly replied.

Up at the roof Kakashi and Naruto looked on the exchange in interest, Naruto knowing that if worst came to worst Jiraiya would hide behind him. Naruto noticed four, somewhat, familiar persons run towards his position. He and Kakashi jumped down landing beside Jiraiya and the intimidating woman holding the five shaku long blade.

"Naruto, just when did you come back?" Sakura asked as she reached their position.

"Just now." Naruto responded. "It has been awhile, Sakura-chan."

With startling realization Sakura noticed something about Naruto, "You're taller than me, aren't you?" she questioned.

"Hn?" Naruto took his hand and leveled it to Sakura's length and true, the hand was in nearly eyelevel for him. "You're right."

"So what do you think about me now? You think I'm more womanly now?" Sakura asked her old teammate.

"It's fine. You haven't changed at all," Naruto responded giving her a thumbs-up. Behind him both his two travel companions fell to the ground exclaiming that the guy had 'no skills in understanding a woman's heart,' while Sakura was fuming at his response.

"Naruto-oniichan," was heard to Naruto's left and as a cloud appeared. As the cloud dispersed stood a nude brunette female there, saying "Oiroke no Jutsu." The woman disappeared and in her place was a twelve year old boy.

"How was that, that was really good wasn't it?" the boy asked.

Naruto only silently laughed at the boy's jutsu. "Konohamaru, I'm not a kid anymore so I don't use that childish jutsu anymore. You shouldn't use that jutsu either anymore." Sakura couldn't help but be awed and respect this more mature Naruto. She was quietly wondering over what new jutsu he had learned during his travels.

"Such a jutsu is now mediocre, Konohamaru," Naruto loudly exclaimed, "Behold the new perverted ninjutsu I've developed. Here we goooo!" Naruto just finished the seal when a fist sent him into the ground leaving a large hole, the punch accompanied by a scream of "Naruto no baka."

She was about to pound some more sense into Naruto when Jiraiya decided to save the skin of his student, he already had lost one student and wasn't about to lose another one. "Naruto, we must go and see the Hokage now." Sakura stopped from her would be beating and let Naruto stand up from the ground.

* * *

Apparently Tsunade had wanted to test Sakura and Naruto's abilities against Kakashi and with help of their wit they had been able to defeat him, using his greatest weakness, his unknowingness of how Icha Icha Tactics played out. The two former teammembers were currently walking down the streets of Konoha with the blue haired woman Yume trailing them.

"So Naruto, who is the blue haired woman?" Sakura asked, she had been wondering about her ever since she had seen the woman but hadn't been courageous enough to ask.

"That's Yume-_chan_," Naruto said, either totally oblivious to the murderous stare from the woman or he knew and didn't care. Sakura pegged it as the former seeing how he still seemed to be clueless about females.

"So why is she traveling with you guys?"

"She's been teaching me some advanced kenjutsu," Naruto explained.

"But you didn't use any against Kakashi just yesterday?" Sakura questioned. If Naruto knew, kenjutsu why not use it? It was an even more valid reason if it was advanced such.

"My swords are sort of broken and I haven't mastered it yet, at least that's what _she_ says," Naruto replied. "Isn't that so, Yume-_chan_?"

"That is so Naruto-bozu." Yume said and it seemed like she was about to continue her statement but her mouth had stopped moving, her whole body had stopped moving. There was a slightly shocked expression over the face of the woman as she stared down. The two Konoha nin wondered why she stopped when it was obvious to them she was about to continue her statement, but soon something red started to spread through the clothing of the woman catching their eyes. Sakura and Naruto ran towards her as she fell to the ground. They reached her just as she impacted with the ground.

Sakura with her medical training saw that the chances that Yume had survived the arrow that had hit her were minimal. The arrow that sat lodged deep within Yume had entered through the right shoulder blade and exited through the side of her chest around breast height. With most likelihood from the appearance of it the arrow had gone through the spinal cord and the heart as well. When Sakura ran a quick diagnostic jutsu she could conclude that Yume was indeed dead, hear punctured and the spinal cord was shattered.

"Sakura-chan, did she…" Naruto asked as his eyes started to tear. Seeing his old crush nod he couldn't help but break down sobbing even though he knew he shouldn't.

"I'm sorry Naruto, she was probably dead before we reached her," Sakura told the boy. It was even likely that Yume was dead before she fell to the ground from the looks of the situation.

As people started to flock around the dead woman the two ninja they didn't notice that atop a rooftop in the distance a dark shadow jump down on the crowded streets with a bow hung over the shoulder.

* * *

Tsunade sat in her office, wishing something; anything would interrupt the monotony that was signing paper work. She would do anything to get a break from it.

"Tsunade-sama!" came the cry of Shizune as she rushed into the office, nearly throwing the doors of their hinges.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked.

"They need your assistance at the hospital. A man dropped down having convulsions while he was eating twenty minutes ago and was taken to the hospital. The doctors there can't find anything wrong with him though but somehow they are losing him it seems." Shizune explained. Tsunade was quickly on her feet rushing towards the hospital with Shizune trailing behind.

When Tsunade arrived at the hospital ten minutes later she was quickly taken into one of the emergency rooms where a tall man was lying on the table spasming with his body. He also seemed to be in a great deal of pain as he occasionally screamed out loudly. "How long have he been like this?" she questioned.

"He's been like this for fifteen minutes Tsunade-sama," one of the doctors restraining the man to the bed said.

Tsunade was about to run a diagnosis of the man when he suddenly just stopped, his body became totally relaxed, almost as if he was dead. After doing the quick diagnosis she could confirm that the man was unconscious. "Any ideas of who this is?" she asked the doctor that was in charge.

"No Tsunade-sama,"

"Well he's probably a shinobi, judging from his pouches and scrolls, though he's not a Konoha-nin," Tsunade said. The man was probably in his early twenties and was clad in a loose dark-green shirt and loose brown pants with a kunai pouch strapped to each leg. He had long dark-brown hair that was tied into a tight ponytail in the back. From what she had seen from before he had green or hazel colored eyes. His face was angular and that of an experienced man, nothing special considering he most likely was a shinobi. The thing stood out about his face however, was the tattoos he had. On his right side stretching down from the top of the forehead was a silvery line going straight down over his eye all the way to his chin, _'Somewhat like those of Jiraiya,' _Tsunade thought for herself. The left eye had four smaller tattoos, one in the shape of a red tear under the middle of the eye and three triangles evenly spaced above the eye. Lastly was what looked like a seal in the middle of the forehead, it was like a line that had been twisted ninety-degrees. She hadn't seen anyone like this in the bingo books so he couldn't be that big a ninja, if he was one.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune said looking triumphantly at her master.

"What is it Shizune?" Tsunade questioned as she was brought out of her musings. Shizune held a Kiri Hitai-ate triumphantly towards Tsunade that she had found in one of the man's many pockets. _'Hm, Kiri-nin, what's he doing here though, I can't remember giving a Kiri-nin permission to enter Konoha the last week,' _

"Was there supposed to be Kiri-nin here this week Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked, neither she could remember any Kiri-nin asking for permission to enter Konoha the last week, she couldn't remember any Kiri-nin asking for that since three months back actually.

"No, assuming that he was able to infiltrate the village and avoid anyone noting his presence he must be of a higher level, though I can't remember his face though. Get me a bingo book." Tsunade said. Moments later she held a bingo book in her hand and was quickly flipping through the pages, but not encountering one nin looking like the man did, _'Maybe he have a long lasting genjutsu on him?' _Tsunade quickly tested her theory and tried "Kai," without effect. She quickly ordered older ones until she finally hit the jackpot, though it wasn't until they had reached one that was nearly twenty years old that they found a picture of the man. There were only smaller differences to the picture taken twenty years ago and the man lying before her, such as hair length and a slightly more angular face.

"According to this bingo book from nearly twenty years ago," Tsunade said, shocking Shizune and the doctor still present within the room, "This guy is Sūn Sousuke, elite Kiri Jōnin. He has a swordsmanship that almost no one can beat and affinities for amazing three elements, according to a bingo book that was a couple of years older he had had four affinities, he also has an unusually high amount of chakra." She recited from the book. To say she was surprised over that she hadn't been in the newer books would be an understatement, a boy like he should be one of the highest ranking in the bingo book by now with those talents.

"Tsunade-sama, what are we going to do?" Shizune asked her.

"ANBU!" Tsunade yelled and almost as if a spell an ANBU appeared in a swirl of leafs.

"What is it Tsunade-sama?" the ANBU asked her from behind his cat-mask.

"Set up so that this man have a ANBU squad guarding him twenty-four hours a day so he can't escape, take only veterans for the assignment." Tsunade ordered. "Shizune, take all his weapons and scrolls with you to the office, they'll be safe there."

"Tsunade-sama, please wait!" came the cry of Shizune just as Tsunade was walking away, Tsunade turned around to see what it was now. Now in front of her stood Shizune with twenty weapon scrolls held to her chest.

"What is it now?" she questioned. Surely it couldn't be that hard to take the scrolls to the office.

"This is what he had in one pocket." Shizune explained, "And he has a lot more." To emphasize the point she took out another ten scrolls from a pocket, her arms now full. Tsunade grudgingly walked over and started to help Shizune taking all the scrolls and the two kunai pouches. Eventually the two women left the room with four shocked ANBU and one unconscious man, holding onto a total of one hundred thirty scrolls and two kunai pouches. The trip back to the Hokage tower progressed slowly as they had to balance all the scrolls.

Jiraiya was leisurely walking through Konoha on his way to some old fashioned 'research' when he encountered Tsunade and Shizune walking down the streets balancing a lot of scrolls. "Why all the scrolls Tsunade?" He questioned.

"There was this nin that was found unconscious before that had all there summoning scrolls, and we can't leave him with an ability to attack anyone so we take all the scrolls to the tower." Tsunade explained.

Jiraiya sensed something familiar over a large portion of the scrolls. "This nin doesn't happen to have dark hair, green-brown eyes and have a silver tattoo on his right side of his face and one looking like a red tear and three triangles on his left face does he?"

"Sure sounds like him, though I'm not sure about the eyes, but the tattoos is all there," Tsunade told him, "Do you know him?"

"Sure does, he's a colleague of mine," Jiraiya responded. He saw the dangerous look Tsunade gave him and decided to take the painless road. "He helped me to train Naruto for one and a half year before he just disappeared without a trace." Tsunade's features instantly softened hearing that. _'Note to self; Do not divulge ANY information about the writing of Icha Icha, may result in mayor injury.'_ Jiraiya had noticed the glares he had received from some kunoichi since he arrived back in Konoha and back in Suna there had also been a kunoichi out for his blood for featuring her in his books though he didn't know what that had been about. He had actually yet to feature any kunoichi he knew in his books, though it seemed like the kunoichi that glared at him wanted to kill him for doing just that.

"What about that woman though, Yume was her name?" Tsunade questioned.

"She? She tagged along about a year ago and taught Naruto more advanced kenjutsu." Jiraiya said. Jiraiya had yet to give Tsunade a report over the training trip. They had now arrived at Tsunade's office and the two kunoichi was relieved to be able to lay down the scrolls they had been carrying through half Konoha. Just as Tsunade sat down behind her desk Naruto and Sakura came crashing through the door carrying the limp and bloodied body of Yume with them.

"Tsunade no baachan!" Naruto cried out between sobs as he carefully laid down the body on the floor. "She was killed before, we have been looking all over the village for you, what are we going to do with her?"

"Killed? Here?" Tsunade questioned shocked, someone killed within the walls of Konoha and it wasn't even reported to her or taken care of by ANBU.

Jiraiya calmly stepped forward upon hearing this. "Tsunade, there is nothing you can do about it; Yume told me that she would die soon. It was just a matter of time. The only thing she wished for was to be burned as soon as possible. The perpetrator is long gone anyway by now."

"But…" Sakura started but was interrupted by Jiraiya again.

"Take her up to the roof and we'll burn her there, she wanted no ceremony after all." Naruto reluctantly did as he was told knowing that it was what his sensei had wished. Five minutes later all that remained was ashes that flew to the wind and an arrowhead.

* * *

It was the day after his sensei had been killed in the middle of Konoha by a mystery archer. Naruto knew that he should be sad but he just could not, because today would be the first mission they would receive as Team Kakashi.

"Well then for today we have…" Tsunade started when she was interrupted by a woman bursting into the room.

"Hokage-sama, it's terrible. The Kazekage have been abducted by Akatsuki!" the woman said.

"Team Kakashi! Your first mission will be to find out more about the situation in Suna and report back here, after that you will assist them in any way you can." Tsunade ordered.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" was the reply from the team.

* * *

A/N: Oh yeah, finally I'm here, now time for the real thing to begin! Next chapter, rescuing Gaara. Finally I also gave a description of the appearance of my OC and sadly Yume met her fate after one chapter. 


	5. Instated

He was rushing through a dark forest at breakneck speed, the moon hidden by the clouds. He had been running for two months, seldom resting more than three or four hours. The risk that his pursuers would catch up to him was far too great for him to relax. He checked his supplies, _'Damn, I'm almost out of kunai and shuriken and I can't use the swords as long range weapons.'_

He could sense his pursuers gaining on him, their smell traveled with the wind he had manipulated and it was getting stronger then before. In front of him he saw a clearing; he decided this would be his last stand. _'Well if I can't reason with them I'll take down as many as I can.'_

Their target had stopped in a clearing in front of them, the eight shinobi quickly spread out around the clearing. They all knew that there would be a battle in that clearing. They had all sworn to take revenge for their dead comrades. The man they were following had already killed thirty-two of them; the eight was all that remained of the original hunting team.

"I know you are out there!" the man called out in the dark night as he unsheathed his blade from his back. The eight shinobi in the forest tensed and prepared to go in and fight the man. They counted their advantages over the man, and could only count one, he hadn't rested or eaten well for quite some time while they were at least somewhat more rested and had eaten well.

Just as the clouds moved, allowing the moon's bright light illuminate the dark night the shinobi moved. The first to move quickly made his way to the man and did a downward slash with his katana. All that his companions saw was a blue light that was the blade of the man before they saw their comrade split in half, his blade equally split just inches from the man.

The seven remaining shinobi stopped their advance on the man as they saw his blade which had reflected of a silver blue sheen momentarily changed to red, the blood that had covered it disappeared. The man's eyes were seen from behind his dark bangs that were covering his eyes, shining their sinister red.

"Why are you doing this?" the man questioned.

"You betrayed your village," was the response from one of the masked shinobi as he, and his six remaining companions started to run through hand seals. The man instantly recognized them; it was he who had taught them that jutsu.

'_I can't use it to counter all their seven, my only chance is _that_ jutsu,'_ the man had quickly figured out what to do. He quickly ran through a series of hand seals and finished as he saw seven massive fireballs coming at him. He came on the last jutsu just as he felt something wrong about the whole thing. He saw something that wasn't supposed to happen did happen, as the water started to collect around him just like it should he saw something off about it, he quickly threw away his swords, hoping it was soon enough for it to take effect. His red eyes opened in surprise as the fireballs came closer and closer, the sensation of a chill going down his spine. _'Never saw me ending up like this,'_ was the last conscious thought of the man as he looked up and saw the sword reach its highest point, coming to a standstill.

* * *

The ANBU standing at guard was quickly at the bed when the patient lying there awoke with a start gasping out.

"Ow Kami-sama, that's just so bloody wrong, Jiraiya I'm going to get you!" the patient yelled out as he tried to jump out of bed only to be restrained by two ANBU.

"Please lay down sir," the captain of the squad commanded. The man grudgingly obeyed the command, sensing he wasn't in the most favorable position, his weapons nowhere in sight. The captain turned to the ANBU still standing there just watching, "Go and get Hokage-sama," the ANBU disappeared in a swirl of leafs.

The patient sat in his bed taking note of the room; it had white bare walls and just a bed in there. _'Maybe a hospital,'_ he took a smell of the air, _'yup, definitely a hospital,'_ he concluded sensing the stinging scent of anti-septic that was in the room. Together with him was three ANBU, _'They sure know how to take care of their guests here in Konoha,_' the man smiled to himself.

"Hey you guys, you have any sake?" the man questioned the three ANBU trying to relieve the tense atmosphere. To him it almost seemed like they were all prepared for him to attack any given opportunity. "Party poopers," he said when he received no response. He was plotting for how he could get them to speak a little when the door was opened by a young woman clad in black robes followed by the ANBU that left.

"Follow me if you will," she announced to the man, "there is no need for an escort, he's not hostile." She told the ANBU who had prepared to follow.

"How long was I out?" the man questioned.

"Two and a half day," was the response given to him by the woman.

The Kiri-nin and the woman continued to walk through Konoha in silence until they came to a door within the Hokage tower. "Please enter, the Hokage is waiting for you inside." The woman told him.

When he entered the room he saw that behind the desk sat a blonde woman with her hands clasped together. "Good afternoon Hokage-sama," he said formally to the woman.

"Good afternoon Kiri-nin, I am wondering to what are your business here in Konohagakure no Sato. We haven't received a request from Kirigakure about a nin entering here for months so I wonder what are your business here is," the Hokage said with a tone of finality.

"You sure are straight to point, no sake and a small chat before business?" he asked. "You Konoha-nin, always the same, Konoha no Kīroi Senkō was the only exception, otherwise you are always straight to business."

"Answer me, then I might consider it," Tsunade said. Truthfully she wanted to drink some sake, but couldn't with the matter at hand. At least as long as they did not know his intents.

"Well since you asked so nice, I'm here to ask for permission to join as a Konoha-nin," he exclaimed.

"And your name is?" Tsunade questioned. She knew the name but wanted it confirmed.

"You must know it already, judging from the ANBU guard and that you've taken all my scrolls, probably found me in one of the older bingo books. You even now have twelve ANBU on guard ready to jump in at the slightest hostile move from me." The man said.

"How do we know that you aren't a spy from Kiri that will upstage a war?" Tsunade questioned.

"Since I am a Nuke-nin that does seem unlikely, besides I would not betray my student that easily, alliances are meant to hold, that was what the Mizukage didn't understand when I was hunted out of Kiri nineteen years ago. I need a village to live in and from the tales of my student Konoha seemed like the best one."

"Just to be sure we need to do a couple of tests, Yamanaka-san, please enter," Upon the call a side door was opened and a man with blonde hair and turquoise eyes entered. "Yamanaka Inoichi here will conduct his family jutsu and deem if your intentions truly are as pure as you say." Five minutes later the Yamanaka man exited, the nuke-nin smiling towards the Hokage.

"Well then, am I allowed to be instated as a Konoha-nin?" he asked.

"Yeah, just fill in these forms and give them to me, you'll be instated as a Jōnin seeing as you was one in the past." The Hokage said as she hand the man a couple of sheets of paper.

"Hokage-sama…" the man said, "What age should I write in? Born year or actual body age?"

"What do you mean?" the Hokage asked.

"Well you see… I was sort of cryogenically frozen for seventeen years, meaning I was born thirty-five years ago, however my body's cells are nineteen years old."

"Huh? How's that possible? Several of your cells should be broken apart by the freezing and unfreezing process…" Tsunade was speechless, she had never heard of such a case as this. It was, to say the least, amazing. "Take the age you feel like writing," It was a truly unique situation this man was in then. She was handed the registration sheet.

"Then welcome to Konoha, Sousuke-san," Tsunade said as she took out a leaf Hitai-ate and Jōnin vest from nowhere. "Your scrolls and pouches are in that cabinet. We will call for you when we need you, until then you are restricted to within the village, until then you are dismissed."

'_That really must be a kage-level summoning, the Mizukage did the same thing with my Chūnin and Jōnin vest, it's almost worth the work to be kage to have that jutsu.' _Sousuke thought as he took the vest and Hitai-ate. He walked over to the cabinet and retrieved the scrolls, counting them, they were all there untouched. He strapped the two pouches to his legs and bound the Hitai-ate around his forehead with the leaf facing to the right. Vest in place he left the office, just as he was exiting the office he remembered something, something important.

"What about the sake?" he asked, turning around. He saw that his kage had a look that said she wanted to, but there was paperwork to be done.

"I really can't leave; my assistant will be on me in an instant." Tsunade said. The newly instated Jōnin nodded at this and left the office, intent on finding a bar, he hadn't had sake for months now, and he wanted some this instant. As he left the office he met a man he had been looking for, Jiraiya.

From within the office Tsunade heard a sound that she recognized, Jiraiya's scream of pain, though she was usually on the inflicting end. She heard Sousuke's voice travel through the closed door, "What the hell did you try on Yume, you do that again and I'll kill you!" Tsunade rushed into the hall and saw the mangled form of Jiraiya lying on the floor, Sousuke standing above him with a bokken pressed to Jiraiya's stomach.

"What did you do to Jiraiya?" Tsunade questioned, she was the only one allowed to pummel Jiraiya.

"Nothing much," Sousuke said, placing the bokken back in a scroll. "By the way Jiraiya, I managed to get you these." Five books were dropped in Jiriaya's lap. Tsunade recognized the frame of some of those books; it was the pink frames of Icha Icha: Engagements.

"These are the new ones, and the limited edition of the already printed ones?" Jiraiya questioned as he quickly was back on his legs.

"Yeah, they are directly from the publishing company, I know you have wanted to read those ever since they were published, number four and five just went into production three days ago, those that you hold right now are the first printed."

"Wait Jiraiya, you haven't read those?" Tsunade interjected. She wasn't surprised if Sousuke had been a pervert as well. It seemed like every, male, sensei Naruto had was one. 'How can he still not be one though?'

"No, I just stand for the manuscript, the other guy do the rest. He hasn't even allowed me to read them and I wasn't able to get my hands on them during the training trip, they were always sold out." Jiraiya bawled, behind him Sousuke stood snickering.

"So it wasn't you that came up with the pictures in the front of the first volume then?" Tsunade was still doubtful.

"What pictures?" Jiraiya questioned, his interest raised. He quickly opened the first volume turning up a random page in the book, it was just a picture of the Naruto look-a-like they decided to have as a main character. "It wasn't anything special,"

Tsunade saw what page Jiraiya was looking at and decided to show him what she meant. She flipped to page seventeen. "That picture."

Jiraiya's eyes bulged out slightly and a slight nosebleed occurred. There were two young women standing in an onsen making out in all their glory. He recognized them from some photos Naruto had from the Chūnin exam. "No, not my handiwork, _he_ must've found some pictures Naruto had with him and used them as models for characters, don't you think so Sousuke?"

"Yeah, probably something like that. Well I got to find a bar now, I haven't had sake for ages." Sousuke declared as he disappeared in a swirl of leafs before Jiraiya could say anything more. _'Gah, just remembered what he told me: never, ever mention anything perverted in the presence of Tsunade or you might end up dead. Icha Icha conversations are to be avoided to the highest degree. I must have been close to death there then since I just dropped of five books to him.' _Sousuke was mentally berating himself over and over again as he walked down the streets searching for a bar. Eventually he found a place that seemed to be the bar where the Konoha shinobi assembled to drink, there was already some Konoha Jōnin seated there. He ordered a bottle of sake and sat down. He was silently pondering over how it all played out since he came here. His sensei had completed the favor asked for, he had gotten the latest two books to the publisher and been instated as Jōnin. The only thing that was on his to do list was; find a Chinese restaurant and give Naruto his swords.

He aimlessly wandered down one of the many streets in Konoha and eventually found a bar where he could silently enjoy some sake in the afternoon heat. During his stay in the bar he realized that he better find a hotel to stay at for the moment. He quickly drank the last contents of his bottle and paid. It didn't take him long to find a hotel, once he had gotten the key he decided on sleep since he was exhausted after an eventful day and his weariness had yet to completely wear off.

* * *

Temari and team Kakashi had just entered Sunagakure where they were informed of the situation. Apparently Kankurō had followed the Akatsuki members but he had been poisoned by one of them.

"So you can't cure him?" Temari questioned franticly, at the moment it seemed like she wasn't losing one but both her brothers at the hands of Akatsuki.

"We can't, and he probably has half a day left at most now," the Suna-nin that guided them to the hospital informed her.

"Then let's hurry up Temari-san, I'll examine him." Sakura declared overhearing the conversation.

The two kunoichi rushed into the room in which Kankurō lay unmoving on a hospital bed. As the two companions to the females entered an elder woman rushed to attack the silver haired man, but was stopped by the younger blond accompanying him, shocking the assembled shinobi within the room

"Why are you going at Kakashi-sensei for old hag?" he questioned. _'The old hag was pretty good,' _

"I remember that time, that White fang of Konoha. He was my sons enemy and I'll get my revenge for him today!" the old lady exclaimed.

"Ah, no I'm not…" the silver haired Konoha Jōnin started but was interrupted by the old lady.

"There's no use in arguing!" she was about to attack once again when an old man stopped her.

"Sister, take a good look at him. There's a strong resemblance, yes, but he isn't the White fang of Konoha." The man said. At first the woman seemed slightly shocked but soon she started to laugh the attack of as her being senile.

Under the time in which the conversation had been going on Sakura had managed to retrieve the poison from Kankurō's body. "I don't think there's any need to worry about his life anymore. The poison has been directly removed." Sakura told them.

Temari could not help but sit down to the wall in relief, just one brother left to help then.

"Now all I have to do an antidote to remove the last poison that still is within his body. We can't really relax fully yet," Sakura said, "So please gather what I say."

Naruto couldn't be awed at how skillful Sakura seemed to be.

"You are a lot like that slug woman… that a girl like you would come…" the old woman that attacked Kakashi remarked.

"Yes, that is because Tsunade-sama is my master. And my master said that I should come here." Sakura said proudly.

"………….."

"Sister… Time really is slowly flowing by," the old man said to the woman.

"Right! But we're not gonna be slow! Let's go after Akatsuki now!" Naruto loudly exclaimed but was hit in the head by Sakura.

"Baka, I still need to make an antidote to fully cure Kankurou before we leave!" Sakura told him.

* * *

Sousuke woke up with a pounding headache that was slightly familiar. '_I might need to stop doing that,' _he remarked to himself. He looked out through the window and judging from the sun's position it was around eleven. He went through his mental curriculum and found only one thing on the list, find a place to stay more permanently. Sure hotel life was fine but it was always nicer to have a home to come to. He figured he could as well ask the Hokage, she must know if there was some special area of the village that was for shinobi or something like that. 

He walked towards the Hokage tower and upon reaching it five minutes later he heard the voice of Tsunade as she was giving out orders. He heard something about a man named Kakashi and his team and that this team was sent on the same mission as they. The team must have encountered some trouble during their mission Sousuke concluded. _'Wasn't Naruto talking about his sensei being that Kakashi, and I recognize it from somewhere else too…'_ Sousuke decided to sneak closer and listen in. "Tōton Jutsu," was silently whispered as he approached the five Konoha-nin. It seemed to go without a hitch as he stood beside the Hokage without anyone reacting.

"So your mission is to head for Sunagakure and support Kakashi's team. Is that understood?" Tsunade said to team Gai that stood before her.

"Right!" was the response from the elder Jōnin of the group. "Now everyone lets get to Suna in one day,"

"No! Sensei! Let's get there in half a day!" a near carbon copy of the elder Jōnin said. Sousuke couldn't help to cringe when he saw their hair and then their eye brows, frankly they creeped him out. And he wasn't easily creeped out.

"What are they thinking? It takes three days to Suna…" the longhaired nin standing with the group said.

"Please stop talking like that!" the kunoichi of the group said.

"Team Gai you are to leave immediately, dismissed." Tsunade declared; the team was gone in seconds. As soon as they were gone she turned to her right. "You release the jutsu now."

"You saw me?" Sousuke asked and received a nod. "The whole time?" another nod in response. "It was supposed to make me impossible to see according to Jiraiya…"

"He didn't mention that I can see through it did he?" Tsunade said and received a blank look, "Thought so."

"Jiraiya that…" Sousuke muttered. He could not believe Jiraiya didn't tell him such an important detail.

"So why are you here today? I said we would get you when you get your first mission," Tsunade said.

"Well you see, I was wondering if you knew where I could get an apartment or house to live in. Also I was wondering where Naruto is, I really need to give him his swords."

"Doesn't he have swords already?" Tsunade asked the man.

"Yeah, but these are special, the swords he have now are just normal swords not able to withstand much, the ones I have for him are much better." Sousuke explained.

"Hm, I think it's time for your first mission then perhaps, you will just as the team that stood here before you travel to Suna, then you can give Naruto his new swords and help them out. One more Jōnin shouldn't hurt." Tsunade said. She had been weighing the good and bad in the back of her mind, sure he was just recently instated as a Konoha ninja but Jiraiya seemed to know him well and he had trained Naruto.

"But what about apartment or…"

"We'll resolve that when you return," Tsunade said. "Now leave before you lose the tracks of the team that just left, those guys are real fast." Tsunade told him. Soon the eight ninja she was sending on the mission to Suna was gone from her eyesight with a speed that rivaled that of Maito Gai. _'Kami-sama, how many am I sending there?' _She had now sent five Jōnin, two Chūnin and one genin to Suna.

Sousuke was rushing through the forest using all his tracking skills to follow the exact road of team Gai as they had been called. _'I'm lucky that all my things were in the pocket and that I paid for the hotel beforehand. Though tracking these guys doesn't seem to be a hassle at all anyway,' _He thought to himself while running as carefully as he could, not leaving a single sign of his trek through the forest.

* * *

Team Kakashi was preparing for their departure from Sunagakure when they were stopped by a Suna Jōnin.

"If you wait a little we can have a skilled ninja here too," the Jōnin said.

"Really… that's good." Said Kakashi, against Akatsuki it was never bad to have an extra ninja with you.

"I'm going with you!" Temari declared as she walked out from the inside.

"Temari," came a voice from the rooftop of the building she just left. Standing atop there was the old woman that had attacked Kakashi earlier. "You stay here and work on the defense of the country border. From the shinobi of the sand I am more than enough."

"But…! Chiyo-baasama!" Temari started.

"That would be too much for you…" the Suna Jōnin said.

"Don't treat me like an old woman!" Chiyo said.

"She jumped!" Naruto and Sakura declared in unison, even though she had attacked their sensei they didn't want her to die. When she landed with a thud though, they recoiled back in surprise over that she made it while Kakashi just stared blankly at the old woman.

"I've wanted to give my cute grandson some love for a while now…" she told them.

"But Chiyo-baasama, he's my brother, I can't just leave him. I'm coming with you and that's final." Temari said, she would follow them whether she was allowed to or not.

"Che, fine then." Chiyo huffed seeing that there was no reasoning with the blonde woman. "But you make the work harder on the other Suna-nin."

* * *

"We've been running non stop for an entire day already!" the girl complained. "Let's take a little break already!" 

"Tenten, your discipline is lacking." The teen clad in green spandex said. The four Konoha-nin was jumping from branch to branch when the white eyed teen noticed something in front of them.

"Wait Gai!" came a voice in front of them. There stood a dog with a Konoha Hitai-ate.

"Pakkun," was all the leading Jōnin said as he and his team stopped in front of the ninken.

"Kakashi ordered all eight of us ninken to split up and search for the scent of Akatsuki members separately." The dog explained, "We discovered that they headed towards Kawa no Kuni between Konoha and Suna. Your group is closest to the Akatsuki heading from Konoha to Suna, so we came here."

"I see…" said the teen in green spandex.

"Follow me. I'll explain while we are running." Pakkun explained before he set of followed by the team.

Team Gai did not notice that they were being watched from afar by a man in a tree.

That he had held his distance to the team rather than meet up with them he had paid of as he saw a man come out from a tree and spy on them. _'So they've been noticed, at least I have the advantage of surprise.'_ He thought to himself.

* * *

The members of Akatsuki were debating about who should battle the intruders coming towards their location as they spoke.

"I'll go, I have a personal vendetta against that man…" one of them exclaimed.

"Indeed… after all, that jutsu is suitable for you, as you have a large amount of chakra even for us Akatsuki… Kisame. However I'll still need to have thirty percent of your chakra."

"Oh well… Finally…" Kisame said, "It looks like I'll be able to pay him back for that kick he gave me." Soon Kisame and his companion sat on two rocks and performed the needed jutsu.

* * *

Pakkun hesitated for a moment as he smelled something in the air, something that didn't go unnoticed by Gai. "What's the matter?" he asked the ninken.

"Someone's coming," the dog announced. The white eyed teen performed his family jutsu "Byakugan" to pinpoint the location of the attack.

"Behind us!" he yelled out. From the ground the tip of something wrapped in bandage appeared and started to grow higher. As it was about to reach to their position they all jumped away, avoiding the attack. A thick cloud of dust covered the area but as it dissipated a looming figure could be seen, holding a large sword looking thing longer than him.

"…" The green clad Jōnin stared at the man in front of them. "You are…"

"Do you know him? Gai-sensei!" the younger green clad man said.

"Who are you?" Gai asked. His team could not help but be embarrassed with their sensei.

"Ah, it looks like the 'Bizarre beast' is as dumb as one as well," the blue skinned man mocked. "Well, at any rate, I'd better refresh your memory…"

"This guy, he has an overwhelming chakra. I've never seen someone with this much power since Naruto." The white eyed teen told his teammates.

"This," the blue skinned man said, "This is Akatsuki." He threw his sword skywards hard and ran through seals. "Suiton: Bakushouha,"

The Konoha team shifted and prepared for whatever jutsu that was. The jutsu sent out a torrent of water from the mans mouth flooding towards them. Just as he finished it his sword was skillfully caught in his hand.

"Here we go!" he announced as he traveled on the water towards the Konoha team. He was heading towards the older Jōnin when he was intercepted by the Jōnin's carbon copy.

"Konoha Shoufuu!" the kick to his hand made him lose the grip on his sword. Before he could even land he was attacked yet again but now by the white eyed teen.

"Hakke Kuushou!" the air thrust sent him flying towards where he knew his sword was so he grasped the hilt of his sword and just as he came to a stop he noticed projectile coming at him, he quickly blocked it with the sword but to his chagrin it was covered in explosive notes. He did the only thing he could do, he went under the water.

"What pesky brats… an extreme nuisance," he said as he came up from the water.

"Those Suiton jutsu… and that large sword…" the Jōnin said, "You must be…"

"It seems like you finally remembered me."

"… Someone I've met before," Gai said.

"……… You really have a talent of getting on people's nerves." The blue skinned man said. Everyone present thought they heard someone mutter 'Tell me about it, try trailing the guy for a day, you'll be insane at the end,' Ignoring it, counting it as an illusion he continued, "I suppose I'll toy with you until you remember."

Gai swiftly attacked the man but was blocked by the sword, but it seemed to have been the Jōnin's plan all along, as he pulled away the sword from its wielder's grasp with his legs. "Now!" he announced and all three members of his team attacked.

"Tch…" the man huffed as he saw them come at him. "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!" Three clones formed from the water and blocked the attacks. Gai saw his students in a bad position and readied the sword; he just had taken, for an attack.

"Suirou no Jutsu!" the clones said and water started to rush around the nin they were holding. Gai decided to attack with the sword but just as he was bringing down the sword with all his might, spikes appeared from the handle making him throw it backwards instead of attack.

"Lee! Neji! Tenten!" Gai said, seeing his student within the water prisons unable to do anything.

"You brats surprised me, you were a lot more resourceful than I originally thought…" the original standing with his back turned to them said.

Gai could do nothing but stare and wait for his opponent's next move.

"Now without anything getting in the way, I can take you out!" he announced.

"Oh, Gaki-san," was heard from the sideline of where the battle occurred. That voice was familiar to the blue skinned man but he couldn't place it. He wanted to face the voice but since he was staring down with Gai he was unable to. He motioned for his blade to come to him but to his surprise it didn't.

"What the!?" he yelled out surprised at the lack of blade in hand.

"Really Gaki, still haven't learned in nineteen years have you?" the voice came again, now much closer. That voice, that mocking voice, how he hated it but he couldn't place it with a face.

Gai was just as curious as his opponent as to whom this mystery man was but was unable to see who it was.

The three captured nin within the water prisons looked around but saw no one in the area. One though echoed through their minds, _'is it a genjutsu?'_

Suddenly the tip of the sword appeared in the middle of Gai and his opponent.

"There it is, what took it so long?" its wielder asked out loud. Though what happened next surprised him, following the sword was a young man facing him.

"You!" he exclaimed at the man holding his blade.

"Really now, no manners back then, no manners now either it seems. How you got your hands on Samehada is beyond my comprehension." The man announced.

"But, Samehada is only acknowledging me as its wielder," The Konoha team looked on at the exchange with apprehension, this new person, was he a friend or foe. They were unable to see his Hitai-ate and they did not recognize him from Konoha.

"Now, Gaki-san, this isn't even the real thing, just look at the bad handiwork." The man announced as his left hand started to shine a brilliant blue. The hand was pressed towards the point that connected the blade with the hilt and moments later the blade shattered. "Now the real thing would be able to handle that, but this imitation isn't nearly as good."

From within their prisons the Konoha shinobi watched in apprehension how this played out.

"You destroyed it…"

"Yes, and now you're going down yourself," the mysterious man announced. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" about thirty clones appeared surrounding blue skinned man. Just as this happened Neji broke his and his companion's water prisons. They all saw from afar as the mystery nin took down their opponent with ease using swords. As soon as the head had been sent rolling the bunshin disappeared and the ninja himself disappeared in a swirl of leafs.

The team quickly reached Gai who stood staring at the corpse which had been their opponent but was now replaced by a totally different man.

"Who was that nin just now?" Lee asked.

"I don't know, but at least he was from Konoha if his Hitai-ate was an indication," was the response from Gai. "Now come on, let's get there before Kakashi; this was apparently not the real thing we fought."

As he saw team Gai leave Sousuke couldn't help but laugh to himself. "Interesting, most interesting,"

* * *

A/N: At last I've come to at least some action, though it wasn't that much but hey, at least the action/adventure part has begun. Now with Kisame handled next is Itachi. From now on the things are going to deviate from the manga though some things will play out, though the way there will most likely be different and the outcome as well. 


	6. Rescuing Gaara

Team Kakashi, Temari and Chiyo were traveling through a forest to Kawa where Akatsuki most likely was. They had been doing so for quite some time. They paused for a moment to get their breath in control, but just as they did that a man in a black cloak with red clouds appeared before them.

"Itachi!" Kakashi said through his teeth when he saw the man but received no response from the stoic Uchiha.

"Get out of the way, we are getting Gaara from you Akatsuki bastards!" Naruto yelled out as he tried to attack Itachi but was stopped by Kakashi's left arm.

"Don't look him in the eyes, he'll use the Mangekyo Sharingan and capture you in a genjutsu that you won't be able to cancel." Kakashi announced to his companions.

In front of them Itachi just scoffed. "You, Uzumaki Naruto," he said and pointed to Naruto with his right index finger, "Are coming with us."

"You'll have to go through me first," Kakashi announced and rushed at Itachi. Itachi dodged the attack and was about to deliver a blow to Kakashi when Naruto appeared and yelled out "Ōdama Rasengan" a he drove a large sphere of chakra into Itachi.

Itachi just burst into smoke and as the smoke blew away Itachi appeared behind him. As Naruto looked around ' saw everyone lying on the ground in a pool of their own blood. _'Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Temari-san, old hag,' _

"You're weak Uzumaki, you could not save them, how have you thought that you would be able to get into our base and collect the corpse of the Kazekage?" Itachi mocked him.

Naruto could feel his anger surface. He started to feel a power surge up within him as the anger grew stronger. He wanted to lash out and just rip up Itachi's throat. He felt that his consciousness was slipping away from him. Deep within his mind he heard a voice that goaded him to accept _his_ power.

* * *

"Naruto, you're weak," Sousuke said to his student as he was slashing at him. This only seemed to further aggravate his student as Naruto's slashes became wilder. 

"Shut up sensei, I'm working as hard as I can!" Naruto yelled to his sensei as he did a vertical slash that was blocked. His eyes had changed from blue to red and the pupils had become just thin slits.

"I know you're working as hard as you can and in that sense you are strong. It is your emotions that make you weak." Sousuke said as he blocked a slash aimed towards his neck.

"So what you are telling me is that emotions are wrong?"

"In a sense, yeah I do."

Naruto could feel the anger rising up in him, empowering him. He saw that the red chakra of Kyuubi started to lick around his body. "Why does it make me weaker if I get this power?" Naruto questioned as he unleashed an attack that was faster than ever before.

From the side Jiraiya watched in interest, he was curious as to how far Naruto could go with the transformation of Kyuubi's chakra, and it seemed like he would get an opportunity to see it now.

"You'll never get back that Sasuke-gaki if you continue to let your emotions rule you. To be honest if I hade been you I would have killed him," Sousuke continued.

Naruto felt his power increase even more as he became angrier and failed to notice that his slashes had gone from at least somewhat graceful arcs as they had been at the beginning to choppy waves.

"Naruto! Stop it now, that is weakness!" Sousuke yelled out as Naruto's chops became almost bone crushing and hard to block.

With a sizzling sound a fourth tail started to manifest from Naruto's body and the chakra felt much more sinister than before. The chakra covering him was a much darker red now. "It feels good," he announced from within the dark haze.

"This is bad," Naruto heard Sousuke said as he jumped away, after that he felt his consciousness drift away.

When Naruto groggily woke up he saw a large building leveled to the ground and that Sousuke stood above Jiraiya healing a rather large wound on his chest. He could tell that Sousuke also had been hurt, judging from the dried blood that covered the whole left part of his green shirt.

"What happened here sensei?" Naruto questioned, obviously it had been a battle of large magnitude judging from the wreckage.

"You happened," was the only response from Sousuke as he wrapped bandage around Jiraiya's chest.

Naruto stared at his sensei in shock. "What… I…?"

"You lost control of your emotions, if you do that this is what might happen if you do. The anger clouds your judgment. The power you have, only use it if it is an absolute must. It is, after all, a double edged sword." Sousuke told him as he wrapped a bandage around Jiraiya before he started to tend to his own wound which seemed to be just superficial.

"Then why did you continue to taunt me?" Naruto questioned.

"Because, my training isn't only about the body, but the mind as well. For my kenjutsu requires that the user retains his cool in all situations. As I said, if you use the chakra of the Kyuubi you'll be a sitting duck after a while. If you can't keep your emotions in check I will discontinue your training." Sousuke explained

"Now get up, we're leaving this place before we get the bill of demolishing this place,"

* * *

Naruto quickly reined his emotions as he was taught by Sousuke and later Yume. He would not let Itachi get the better of him. He was about to lash out at Itachi when everything around him blurred for a second and now Sakura stood holding a hand to his shoulder. _'Genjutsu, how could I fall for it?' _He asked himself. 

"Don't worry Naruto, we'll help you," Sakura told him, "This is after all the man that have caused both you and Sasuke-kun much suffering." She glared at Itachi who just stood there unmoving, observing the shinobi in front of him.

"You won't be a problem for me," he said in monotone before he threw a volley of kunai. Before the kunai was even close to the group they fell to the ground due to a strong wind.

"Good work Temari-san," Sakura said to the Suna kunoichi as she remembered her doing something similar back in the chūnin exams against Tenten's weapons.

Temari looked at back in surprise, "I didn't do that, I need my fan that's still on my back for that," She looked around at the group before her, _'no one had moved yet, so then who?' _

"Hn, so you managed that…" Itachi said, his face not betraying one emotion. He quickly ran through hand seals, "Katon: Karyū Endan!" The large dragon made of fire was sent towards the group which quickly scattered with the exception of Kakashi who stood still and did his own hand seals. "Doton: Doryūheki!" a wall of earth rose up in front of Kakashi, the fire dragon flew against it and dissipated and protecting Kakashi.

Kakashi was preparing the seals for Chidori when he saw Naruto and a clone rush at Itachi with a speed he hadn't showed during the bell test. What surprised Kakashi wasn't the speed Naruto ran at but what was forming in his hand. From the middle between Naruto and his clone's hands was a small sphere made out of fire. As the sphere grew larger fire occasionally lashed out, licking Naruto's hands.

Itachi had no time to reach even with his Sharingan when Naruto drew the fiery sphere into him.

Naruto stood bent over the burned corpse of a man that wasn't Itachi. That jutsu had taken a lot out of him and he could felt the stinging that always came with him using that jutsu, _'I should've used Rasengan instead.'_

Sakura rushed towards Naruto as he collapsed on the ground. "Naruto!" When she reached him and turned him over her gaze immediately latched onto Naruto's hands. The hands were covered in calluses and burns on the front side and the backs of the hands seemed to have been affected by frost bites.

"Figured as much," Kakashi said when he saw the injuries Naruto had on his hands. Sakura was quick to apply salves to help the healing process of the wounds.

"What was that jutsu Kakashi sensei? I've never seen something like that except that Rasengan." Sakura said.

"Honestly… I don't know," Kakashi answered, "The jutsu was somewhat similar to the Rasengan but the sphere did not spin, rather it imprisoned a high amount of fire within itself that upon impact spread quickly onto the target, burning them to crisps. However it did not seem like Naruto mastered it judging from the wounds."

Sakura just nodded at Kakashi's assessment as she finished bandaging up Naruto's wounds.

Kakashi was going to pick up Naruto just as he woke up from his unconsciousness.

"What happened?" he asked his sensei as he stood up on his feet.

"You passed out after using a fire jutsu, just what was it really?" Kakashi said.

"That was… I really dunno. Ero-sensei never gave it a name." Naruto answered.

Kakashi just nodded before he motioned for the group to move forward towards their goal. _'Hn, I have to ask Jiraiya about that.' _

* * *

Team Gai and Pakkun had quickly reached the place that apparently was where Akatsuki was. However in their way was a large rock with a seal on it. At first they had tried to force their way through but all their attempts, including powerful strikes and explosives had come out unsuccessful. 

"Let's wait here until Kakashi and his team come here, they might be able to figure out how the seal works," Gai told his team who nodded their assent to the plan.

* * *

"It seems like the Konoha rats are here and banging on our door," the leader told him companions as they finished drawing out the jutsu. "And Kyuubi is coming here." 

"Yes, then let us handle them, I need to see for sure if it really was who I thought it was before," Kisame said as his companion remained emotionless and stoic as usual.

"No, you two have already failed once. Deidara! Sasori! I'll let you two handle the nuisance." The leader declared before he and the other members disappeared.

"You better not mess up," Kisame announced before he as well took his leave, leaving the two members alone in the hall.

* * *

"Yo!" Kakashi announced as they reached the place where team Gai stood. "Why haven't you entered yet?" 

"The way is sealed, we hoped you would know a way to lift it," Gai told his fellow Jōnin.

Kakashi walked up to the large rock and looked up on it, it was a "Kin" tag so that meant there were some others in the area. "Okay, this is a "Gofūkekekkai, meaning there is four other tags somewhere here. The five tags need to be removed at the same time for it to be released. But first we need to find them."

"Yosh! Neji use your Byakugan and locate the tags! Also check for any activity in the area, we still do not know what happened to that shinobi before, he could just be imposing as a Konoha-nin since we didn't see him clearly." Gai told his student.

'_Shit, no good, gotta do that or they'll find me if I remember correctly that eye can even see through genjutsu and have a damn long range.' _Sousuke thought when he heard the last bit of the conversation with his heightened senses. He quickly formed some handseals and quietly uttered "Kuchiyose no jutsu," and slammed his hand down on the ground. In the cloud that appeared covering the close proximity he started to manipulate the chakra within his body.

Back by the rock Neji just activated his eyes and started to scan around the area. "There is no activity here except some animals." He announced to the teams before he started to search for the seals. "I've found them, one is directly northeast on top a rock around 500 meters from here. To the southeast, 350 meters on a tree trunk rising from a river bed. To the northwest, stuck to a Cliffside 650 meters from here and lastly at the center of a small groove around 800 meters southwest."

"Well then, it might be best if my team take care of the seals since they are faster than yours," Gai told Kakashi as he took out communicators from his bag. Kakashi just nodded in acknowledgement. The team quickly left towards a tag each and two minutes later they were all in position to remove the tags.

"3…2…1…NOW!" came over the communicator and five tags were ripped at the same time. At four of the five positions shinobi stood and stared in shock as they saw something looking like themselves forming from the ground.

* * *

"Now then, Sakura if you please would…" Kakashi said motioning to Sakura to do her magic with the large boulder. 

Sakura unleashed a punch on the rock, obliterating it. The five Shinobi rushed into the cave.

'_What to do now, the team with the weird leader or the ones that just rushed inside' _Sousuke was indeed in a dilemma, help his student or the weird team. He started to quickly weigh the cons and pros for both options when he remembered something that he saw about his student's team, _'Weird team it is then, Naruto's weapons can wait.' _the decision had come swiftly after assessing what possible outcomes there would be in helping his student and his team. He released the chakra that was coursing through his body and started to run towards the closest member of the bizarre leader's team. "Come on now Kaitou and Chinure! It's time to stretch your legs for the first time in years," he told his two summons.

* * *

Neji had quickly come to the conclusion that his opponent was just like him, they did not just look the same but they fought the same and had the same strengths. After another unsuccessful attack he jumped back and tried to figure out a course of action. It seemed like all his techniques was countered by the same technique. _'How do you fight someone who knows all your strengths and weaknesses…?' _

His thoughts were cut short when he saw a volley of arrows make themselves known from the sky by entering his vision. Both he and his clones jumped backwards as arrows embedded themselves deeply in the ground where they had stood. From what Neji could see there was almost two hundred arrows in the ground.

'_Enemy, many of them too, how could they escape my sight before?'_ Neji questioned as he saw the large amount of arrows. Seconds later however with a poof the arrows disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving only five arrows in the ground.

The Neji clone took this moment of the original's inattentiveness as an opportune time to strike.

Neji saw the strike that was directed as his heart in the moment before it would have been too late to react. He moved his own arm up in protection letting the clone of him disable his arm instead of destroying his heart. He was now at a severe disadvantage with an unknown enemy hidden somewhere and a disabled arm fighting a clone of him.

The clone started with an unrelenting barrage of strikes to Neji's chest. Neji could tell that he was losing quite badly as it was, before they had been evenly matched but now with one arm disabled he was forced to block the strikes more frequently instead of dodge them.

* * *

Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, Temari and Chiyo had just entered the cave through the debris of the large-boulder-turned-pebbles. There in front of them sat two figures clad in black cloaks with a red cloud design, one even sitting on the unmoving body of the Kazekage, Gaara. Behind them stood a large bird that seemed to be made out of clay. 

"Ho, they've come to play, hmm?" the blond Akatsuki member asked.

"You will give me my brother back this instant!" Temari yelled out at the Akatsuki members.

"Why would you want a corpse?" the wrinkle faced Akatsuki member asked her. The team and the Suna shinobi stared at the two in front of them. _'So Gaara is dead already…' _The younger of the shinobi felt as if they had failed Gaara, Naruto more than anyone else. They had been told earlier how a Jinchūriki died if the demon sealed within them was drawn out from its host.

"I'll kill you!" Naruto bellowed as he lunged out but was stopped by

"Boss… You might get angry at me for sating this but…" the blond Akatsuki member said, "I'll deal with this Jinchūriki… hmm!"

"It's one Jinchūriki for each member, don't push it." the elder man said to his companion.

"An artist is one whose talent wanes in the absence of stimuli, boss. And it's said the Kyuubi Jinchūriki is rather strong, at that… hmm!" the blond told him.

"What!? You still insist on calling those… fireworks of yours art? True art endures the ages... beauty everlasting."

"As a fellow artist boss… I respect you. But art is beauty fleeting, beauty gone on an instant… umh!

"What… What's up with these guys…? Sakura questioned as she saw them bicker over art when they were standing in front of them.

Naruto had had enough of their bickering and took out a scroll and summoned a Fūma Shuriken that he was quick to throw at the obviously older of the two members. To his and the others surprise the large shuriken was blocked by a tail that came out under the cloak as he continued to argue against the blond, obviously not paying attention to them.

"Deidara… You mean to make me angry?" he questioned his companion.

"Well…? Didn't I say you'd probably get angry just a whole ago? Hmm!?" the blond replied back.

"My artwork explodes. That's the way it is," the blond announced as the clay-bird bend down and stopped Gaara in its mouth. "Quite different from the little puppet shows you put up boss. Hmm!" The blond jumped up on the bird and flew out from the cave just as the bird swallowed the Kazekage.

"You go after the blond, I'll take care of my dear grandson," Chiyo told the others. "I want to show him how much I love him."

Instantly Naruto and Temari rushed after Deidara on his bird, prompting Kakashi to follow the two younger and less experienced shinobi. "Sakura, stay here and help Chiyo-san!" he ordered his pink haired student. "But don't take any unnecessary risks until team Gai gets here.

"Gai we need reinforcements immediately at the cave," Kakashi said over his com unit.

"We're all caught up in the enemy's jutsu at the moment so it may take a while," was the response from Gai's end.

* * *

Gai was locked deep in battle with his clone; each of his hits was exchanged for a hit on himself. They were both bruised badly but nothing major hindering their movements. _'Looks like I have to use it'_

"Hachimon Tonkou Dai-roku, Keimon… Kai!" he declared as energy rushed through his body. With a speed that blurred the sight Gai unleashed a barrage of kicks and punches that connected with his clone. One minute later Gai lay panting on the forest floor as a pile, that once had been a clone of him, lay ten meters away melting to the ground.

* * *

"Sakura, that isn't the real Sasori, that is but a puppet that he uses, the real him is on the inside." Chiyo told Sakura as Sasori, or rather his puppet, stood on all four revealing that the tail they had seen earlier was attached to his back. 

"He's on… the inside?" Sakura questioned. What she had understood from seeing other puppeteers, the puppeteer controlled the puppet from behind.

"The puppeteer is weak in close-quarter combat, controlling the puppet creates openings you see… That puppet eliminates that that shortcoming." Chiyo explained. "It's a puppet that serves as both armor and weapon, Sasori's favorite, Hiruko."

"Then what do we do?" Sakura asked the elder woman.

"First we draw the real Sasori out from Hiruko."

"Then lets get started," Sakura said as she prepared to engage the puppet and use her super-human strength to pulverize the puppet. "With my strength and your knowledge I know we easily can defeat him and his puppet."

"Come closer here Sakura," Chiyo said as she raised her left hand. "Together we are bringing this guy down." Sakura complied and listened to Chiyo's plan,

* * *

A sudden movement caught both the original and the clone in the unawares as two wolves jumped out through the thick foliage knocking them both down on the ground. Soon after barrage of senbon flew through from the tree tops, hitting the wolves and their prey. 

In a puff of smoke the wolf above Neji disappeared as he felt the stinging sensation as the needles embedded themselves in his body, and it wasn't the usual sensation he felt whenever Tenten managed to get through his defenses, no this was a more burning sensation that started to numb his body. With startling realization it dawned upon him, "Poison," he muttered.

"Oh yes indeed it is," came a voice from above him. Neji used his gradually decreasing ability to move to look up on his attacker. There stood the man that had defeated the blue skinned man so effortlessly before. He could distinguish the leaf headband on the man's head and the Jōnin west he had over his green shirt.

"So you were just an imposter when you fought before then, that's why you won so easily…" Neji said sounding like he drank a bottle of sake to much. He could feel that his mouth started to numb under the influence of the poison coursing through his veins.

"Me an imposter? No you got it wrong, but I simply could not see who of you that was the real one, after all, this clone was greater made than most of them are. So I decided to take you both down, seeing as the clone would be 'killed' when it was taken out of action." The Jōnin responded as he bent down over Neji. "The poison I used spreads quickly through the body, disabling a person in less than a minute, but it wears of after only an hour. With the antidote though all effects disappear."

"Then give me the antidote if you are my ally!" Neji sneered at the Jōnin, his voice was almost gone completely coming out as a nearly inaudible blur.

"My, you're feisty you know that right? Hadn't it been for the face and lack of certain womanly assets I would take you for a woman in 'that time of the month'." The Jōnin said while laughing as he took out a vial.

Neji just glared at the man standing above him, and that was of two good reasons. One he held the key to his recovery, and two, he was disabled on the ground and could now only move his eyes.

"Now this might sting a little… Well not really since you can't feel anything but you know what I mean." The Jōnin said before he inserted the needle in Neji's arm and emptied the contents of the shot into the boy.

Neji felt a tingling sensation as he regained control over his body, part by part. He slowly got up on his feet but started shaking.

"Oh, forgot to tell you, you might be shaky since the antidote can't remove all of the poison since some have entered farther into the muscle tissue meaning it's harder to neutralize." The Jōnin told him. "You'll have to live with it though, we need to help your teammates, last I saw they were locked in battle as well, and that was a good fifteen minutes ago."

"Byakugan!" Neji said as he activated his family's prized Dōjutsu. He saw that Lee and Tenten were still locked in combat with look-alikes of themselves and Gai was resting on the ground.

"My two teammates are still fighting but our leader have taken his out it would seem,"

"Then let's go to your teammates then," the Jōnin announced.

Neji jumped up in a tree, his legs no longer shaky. He pointed to his left, "You go in that direction and you'll find one of my teammates. This time don't take out both the original and the clone, else I'll kill you." He announced before he leaved through the foliage.

"Che, I swear he sounds just like a woman, and an overbearing one at that, making such demands. It so damn demanding and annoying to figure out who's the real one!" Sousuke complained before he took of in the direction the boy had pointed out for him.

* * *

"Naruto! I told you to calm down; this isn't an opponent you are used to fighting. You specialize in close combat which means that this long range fighter is a bad match for you." Kakashi scolded his student. "There are only two ways to defeat an opponent such as him." 

"What are they?" Naruto asked. He had unconsciously started to tap in on some of the Kyuubi's powers as they followed Deidara through the valley.

"The first is to draw your opponent close to you and defeat them in close combat," Kakashi explained, "The other is to outdo your opponent in long range attacks."

"But how do I do that, I don't have any long range attacks Kakashi-sensei," Naruto questioned.

"Either a companion that specializes in long range attacks…" Kakashi drawled, "or someone who can use long range combat support ninjutsu must be in your team. If you don't have that defeating the enemy is impossible. Well, at least if you don't have a brain like Shikamaru that is."

"Then Temari can do it right?" Naruto asked as he pointed to the blonde kunoichi jumping with them.

"I cannot, my Fūton is close to mid range attacks, learning effective long range attacks using Fūton jutsu is something that takes time to learn and I've just recently started to learn some," was the response of Temari who sounded regretful.

"Then Kakashi-sensei, what type are you?"

"Me? Oh, I suppose I'm a Jōnin who has a brain like Shikamaru and long range combat support ninjutsu." Kakashi said as if it was the most unimportant thing in the world at the moment.

"Then we have what we need!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.

"So I told you, calm down not." Kakashi said. Temari could only watch at the strange exchange the two Konoha-nin held. _'Honestly how could we lose to them?'_ she questioned in her mind.

"But it's not so easy though, no matter how much we follow he's not giving us an opportunity. He's someone who entered Suna by himself and defeated Gaara, and above all, he is a member of Akatsuki." Kakashi told his two companions seriously.

"Then what do we do Kakashi-san?" Temari asked him.

"We create an opening… we just need to make up a plan."

* * *

Neji reached Lee just as Gai came from the opposite direction, they came just in time to see Lee pound his clone into the ground where it started to dissolve. 

"Neji, where is Tenten?"

"She's fighting her clone nearby where the tag was in a clearing,"

"Yosh! Let's move out and help out our youthful Tenten!" Gai exclaimed as he jumped off followed by his two companions.

* * *

Chiyo and Sakura were locked in battle with Sasori and the puppet made out of Sandaime Kazekage. 

It had taken a while but Chiyo had managed to use her puppeteer knowledge to steer Sakura in a position from where she could strike down Sasori's armor and puppet Hiruko. As soon as he had escaped the puppet he had stood up and summoned a puppet that apparently was the third Kazekage.

The third Kazekage had been hailed as the strongest ever in Suna because of his ability to manipulate iron sand, rendering iron and steel useless against him as well as he could manipulate magnetic fields.

Sasori had used the iron sand and clogged the joints of one of Chiyo's puppets, rendering it useless for battle.

* * *

Sousuke was just entering the clearing as he collided with a kunoichi that jumped to the tree he was jumping from. The thick foliage had blocked his view so he ended up knocking her and himself into the clearing. As he landed on the ground with her pinned under him he saw two balls that were covered in explosive notes some ten meters away. _'Shit!'_ Was the one conscious thought that went through his mind, summarizing his position quite nicely. 

Tenten looked into the clearing where her explosives just shook the clearing. In the dust that was flown into the air she could see someone standing. _'It didn't work that either; the clone seems to have all things I have and the same amount of skill.'_

She took out a sword from a scroll and prepared to go into the clearing and engage in a sword combat again. She nimbly jumped down onto the ground and sprinted into the thick cloud of dust. The shadow came closer and it seemed like it hadn't noticed her yet. She heightened her sword over her head and swung it downwards…

Sousuke saw the outline of the girl rushing towards him through the dust as he shook his head getting rid of the dizziness caused by the explosion. _'She can't think I'm the clone right? I'm way taller than her.' _He thought but nevertheless he gripped the hilt of his sword ignoring the stinging pain in his left leg as he moved to be more prepared incase she attacked. _'Oh shit, she is attacking,'_ he saw her raise her sword and moments later it was going down towards him.

* * *

Gai, Lee and Neji just reached the clearing in which Tenten should be. The area was covered in dust that slowly was setting. It was obvious Tenten had used one of her more efficient explosives. 

"Yosh, the flames of youth burns brightly from Tenten!" Lee exclaimed. They were all patiently waiting for the dust to settle before they jumped in; knowing that they might very well be attacked in the thick cloud of dust by Tenten who don't know it is her team. They heard the sound of metal on metal and after that there was a complete silence over the clearing.

When the dust settled they all saw Tenten on the ground facing down with a knee in her back and a sword at her neck. In her right hand she held a katana that was cut five centimeters above the hand guard, the blade lying harmlessly at her side.

In a blur they had all rushed to the scene and surrounded the man, ready to kill him at the slightest motion to kill Tenten, though it would most likely kill her as well.

"Stay there!" said the one wielding the sword.

"I thought you would help her, not hold her to the ground and hold a sword to her neck." Neji said.

"In my defense, I did this to defend myself. She came at me with a sword and I blocked it, though it was cut in half then my instincts took over and well the rest is what is before you." came the retort from the wielder of the sword as he lifted the sword from her neck, its tip red from a small amount of blood. The Konoha shinobi wielding the blade took his index finger and removed it from the blade. With a flick of his wrist the blood had disappeared from the index finger as well.

"Then why don't let her get up now…" Neji said in a threatening tone.

Sousuke just stared at Neji dumbly _'What's he talking about?'_ He heard a grunt from below and as his gaze went downward he saw that he still had his knee firmly planted in the girl's back, pressuring her whole body to the ground.

"Oh… Sorry about that," he said as he jumped back and helped her up to her feet.

Tenten just glared angrily at the man before her. He had just pressed her to the ground for over five minutes. She could not believe it, the man had cut her katana in two pieces, and it had been one of her favorites too.

Lee and Neji joined Tenten in the angry glaring of the man, Neji because he still didn't trust the man and Lee joined because his teammates were glaring.

Gai just stared at the Jōnin in front of him. He might not know everything but he had good knowledge about all the fellow Jōnin that was active in Konoha, and he had not seen this one before and there hadn't been any talk about promotion in the last weeks what he knew of. "So Jōnin-san, I haven't seen you before in Konoha, might I ask of your name and what you are doing here."

"Ah, where are my manners," the Jōnin said as he laughed a little, "I'm Sūn Sousuke, recently instated Jōnin of Konohagakure no Sato. I was ordered to assist team Kakashi and team Gai by Hokage-sama."

Gai nodded at the explanation, it would do for now. "Yosh, let's help my rival and his team now!"

"Hai! Gai-sensei!" Lee exclaimed. With that the team took of but not without Neji turning around to Sousuke and giving him a dirty look.

'_What's the problem with the guy, it's not like I did anything to the girl,'_ Sousuke stood there for a moment before he took of after the team.

* * *

Team Gai and Sousuke reached the collapsed cave where Sakura and Chiyo fought Sasori just as black sand started to spread in all directions over where the cave had been. They could see Sakura being grazed by the sand making slight wounds on her arms and legs, seconds later she collapsed to the ground. They all heard the Akatsuki member goad about the poison within the sand as they approached. Apparently he was going to finish her of using the puppet, but just as the puppet reached Sakura she stood up and using her strength she shattered the puppet into tiny pieces using her strength. 

Sasori was surprised; the girl in front of him had apparently managed to make an antidote to the poison he created, a poison even he would have hard to make an antidote to. She was currently healing herself using medical ninjutsu.

Sousuke was impressed with what he saw, the girl in front of him was a much better medical ninja than he was, she managed to seal a wound in second while it took him considerably more time for him to heal the wounds she healed.

"What is that?" Sakura questioned as she saw the body of Sasori. The other Konoha wanted to ask the same question as they saw it from a distance but they didn't want to reveal themselves so soon after arriving, it was better to asses the situation a little before.

"Since he was separated from me, he had not aged… He is just like long ago," Chiyo said.

"It really has been a good while," Sasori said, "Since I last used 'myself'." He was using a long metallic hose like thing that went from where he should have his entrails. Out from his back two 'arms' holding five blades each stuck out.

"So he made himself into a human puppet…" Sakura said, Chiyo confirming this with a nod.

"Now die!" Sasori exclaimed as the hose like thing extended from his stomach, its point coming at Sakura at a high speed. She narrowly avoided the brunt of the attack but was still pierced in her side, luckily the antidote still had about a minute left until it wore off.

Sousuke sat watching the situation. From what he saw the opponent was mostly made of a puppet, meaning that they would have to find his weak point. He had to have some part of him still human or else he wouldn't be able to use chakra, or be alive for that matter. _'Only one way to find it easily'_ Sousuke concluded as he sighed loudly.

"Yosh, let's move in and help them with the Akatsuki member," Gai told his team. Soon they left leaving behind Sousuke who decided to stay back for a little while.

"Sakura-chan, don't worry, we'll help you!" Lee declared as he landed beside the kunoichi. His team soon landed behind him ready to fight Sasori as well.

"Watch out for his weapons, even the slightest scrape can be lethal to you. They are all covered in a very potent poison." Sakura told the newly arrived team. She was relieved that they were here to help her but she couldn't help but worry about them, there was only one antidote left as it was now.

Back in the tree in which Sousuke sat and started to send chakra to his eyes. "Ryūgan," the eyes changed from their hazel green to an amber color and the pupils started to become slit until they changed yet again to take on a diamond shape instead. He jumped down and ran with a high speed towards his target.

Sasori looked on the new arrivals; there was apparently two Jōnin in the group and two chūnin that came to help the pink haired girl and his grandmother. It had already proved to be a much more difficult task than he first though and with the new arrivals it could only become harder. He was about to attack the group when movement behind them caught his eye. There running towards him was a young man holding a sword, with a blade longer than a meter, tightly held in both hands. The man would reach him in a matter of moments.

Sakura saw Sasori launch the cable at them but it missed by a rather large margin though. A second later a shadow flew over them and the cable fell down to the ground. In front of her a man had cleaved the cable and was in the process of swinging the sword at Sasori.

He saw the sword swing in its graceful arc towards Sasori; the blade cut the body cleanly in half. "Damn! I missed." Sousuke exclaimed when the body fell in two as he jumped backwards as fast as he could.

No one behind Sousuke could comprehend why he was swearing except Chiyo. He had just cleaved the puppet in half, why did he curse and retreat? They watched on in sick fascination as the body of Sasori reformed, looking like nothing had happened.

"The jutsu I forbade myself to use, I didn't think I would have to use it again. But it seems like I have no choice." Chiyo said as she took out a scroll and opened it. Out of the scroll ten puppets appeared surrounding her.

"Impressive." Sasori spoke. "They say that the strength of a puppeteer is measured by the amount of puppets the use. You're even using the puppets of the first Kugutsu no jutsu, Enzaemon's ten masterpieces."

Sousuke decided it might be a good time to retreat back a little more, Sasori would probably use one of his most powerful techniques now. He quickly sealed his sword into one of his scrolls after sheathing it.

"Ten puppets is a considerable amount of puppets, but…" Sasori said as he opened a hatch on his chest removing a scroll from within. When the contents of the scroll were summoned around a hundred puppets stood before the assembled shinobi. "Aka Higi: Hyakki no Souen… I'll show you this power.

The leaf shinobi retreated backwards behind the ten puppets of Chiyo had summoned. As if it was the signal to attack when they landed; the hundred puppets of Sasori and Chiyo's ten puppets leaped forward. Tenten started to use her marksmanship with kunai taking out puppet after puppet with great accuracy.

Sousuke was staring at her as she flung kunai after kunai, each hitting their mark. _'I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her throws without anything to block them, it could be hurtful,' _He was quickly roused from his thoughts as he saw ten of the puppets break from the formation heading for him.

He took out a nodachi from a scroll and used it to split the first two in half. He was making his way through the clones with what looked like ease. He was down to the last one and was delivering the finishing blow, a vertical slash, when the puppet jumped to the side. Sousuke tried to cover his now exposed side but was all too late, the puppet managed to shove its blade into his side before the horizontal slash that would cleave it in half landed. _'I was careless,'_

Team Gai had yet to be reached by the puppets thanks to Tenten's marksmanship. Tenten was the only one doing anything since she was the only one that had ranged attack; the others were after all taijutsu users which was a disadvantage in this fight that was against puppets using poison. They saw Sousuke go down as he took out the tenth puppet that attacked him.

"Sakura, use it!" Chiyo called out. Sakura hearing the call from the old woman threw the sphere within her hand at Sasori. She saw his eyes widen just as the sphere connected with him sending him into the wall where he stayed becuase of the seal contained within the orb. Instantly all the puppets under his control that were standing fell to the ground.

"It's over Sasori, that seal completely takes away you ability to manipulate chakra, you can't even use a single chakra string." Chiyo said. A clicking sound was heard from behind Chiyo and a puppet similar to the one sealed to the wall rose from behind her with blades stuck through it.

Sasori rushed at his grandmother as he plunged his sword forward he felt it come to a stop far earlier than he had expected it to. Looking up he saw it wasn't his grandmother he had struck but the girl, Sakura. The sword had been embedded in her left side sticking out on the other side.

"Hurry Chiyo-sama, take the antidote," Sakura told the old woman through gritted teeth.

"Oho, even now you are worrying about others, what a girl you are." Sasori mocked before he pressed the sword deeper into her stomach. To his amazement the girl started to heal the wound while the sword still was plunged deep within her, stopping the bleeding. However he could tell that her control was slipping as the poison did its work, her antidote had worn off.

"It seems like the poison is doing its work," Sasori said, "Of course this blade is a poisoned blade as well." He saw his grandmother move on the ground taking out the vial containing the antidote. _'Probably going to use it on herself,' _to his and Sakura's surprise the old woman stuck the needle in Sakura's thigh, injecting the antidote.

Sasori jerked back but was held back by Sakura who took a firm grip on his right arm. He jerked away, revealing that under the arm was a blade.

Team Gai watched as Sasori moved towards his grandmother who was on the ground shaking due to the poison coursing through her body. But as he closed in on Chiyo did a motion with her hands and just as he was about to reach her two swords appeared in the middle of his chest, spraying small amounts of blood. Behind him holding the swords were two of Chiyo's puppets.

"I am certain you can't move anymore now Sasori, you need a part of you human to be able to manipulate chakra, and with that coming out of play you can't do anything." Chiyo said, just then Sakura fell forward due to the injury she received from the sword that still was in her. Team Gai rushed forward to Sakura, shaken out of their shock.

"Sakura!" Chiyo exclaimed as she saw the young girl lie on her stomach on the ground, blood starting to pool around her. _'I need to take out this sword while I am closing up the wound.'_

Sakura was writhing in pain as the sword was removed slowly. "Hold on, just… a little more…" Chiyo told her moments before the sword clanged against the rocks.

"It's pointless," Sasori told Chiyo, "Even without the poison the girl will die, I hit a vital spot. She'll die of the blood loss soon anyway. You see since you're a medical ninja too I aimed for a spot that can't be treated easily."

"Hm… I have already stopped the emergency medical treatment," Chiyo told Sasori, "What I'm doing now is not medical ninjutsu."

Sasori just stared at his grandmother in confusion, _'then what is she doing?'_

"What I'm doing now is that I'm giving her my own life energy, a Tensei ninjutsu." Chiyo told him. "You know, I originally made it for you… I alone spent many years working on this jutsu just for you. With this jutsu I can even give life to a puppet, in exchange for using up the users life."

Sakura was coming to just as Chiyo finished her explanation to Sasori.

"Are you okay Sakura?" Chiyo asked her and received a faint nod.

"Hm? That's weird, from that Tensei ninjutsu… Doesn't the jutsu user die from giving up their life energy to a dead person?" Sasori questioned upon seeing both Sakura and Chiyo alive.

"Sakura received a fatal wound, but she didn't die of it," Chiyo explained, "So I also came to this level."

"Hn, a pity," Sasori said only to be punched in the face by Sakura.

"It's useless, this body can't feel pain." Sasori told her. "You wanted to know about Orochimaru, right?"

Sakura only gave him a stunned look.

"In ten days at noon, go to the Tenchi Bridge in Kusagakure, there I was supposed to meet with a spy I have as one of Orochimaru's subordinates." Sasori said, just before the puppet body slumped together, apparently dead.

Chiyo fell to the ground as she felt the poison affect her further.

"Chiyo-sama! Let's go back to the village; I can make you a new antidote there." Sakura exclaimed.

"No, there is still something I need to do," Chiyo said as she slowly stood up. "Let's go after the hasty blondes and that Jōnin of yours." Chiyo and Sakura jumped of in the direction in which Kakashi left for.

"Yosh, let's go and save my rival and his student!" Gai exclaimed loudly before leaving the cave after the two females.

"Hai, Gai-sensei!" Lee exclaimed just as loudly as he followed his sensei, Neji hot on his tail.

Tenten stood there in the cave alone, "I have a feeling we are forgetting something here…" she said out loud. There was something about the whole thing that bothered her. She suddenly heard a grunt from behind her. _'Can't be… he's still alive?'_ she questioned as she turned and looked at the puppet which had been Sasori.

"I swear Arashi… I didn't lock you… into that onsen for females…" she heard someone mumble from behind her. As she whirled around she saw what had been bugging her, it was that Jōnin, Sūn Sousuke. He was apparently wounded and was lying passed out on the ground, the poison seemed to have had a quite different effect on him, rendering him unconscious.

"Kami-sama, why me!" she exclaimed to the heavens, seeing that it would be her task to carry him with her to the others. _'I shouldn't have stayed here,'_ she thought as she walked over to the man. Looking more closely she saw he was only a couple of years older than her and as she hoisted him to her back she found that he was heavier than he seemed to be.

"Dim-sum… give me now…" was said in her ears just as she left the place. Was it just her or was all the Jōnin weird?

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei, still not ready?" Naruto questioned. 

"I told you already, don't be in such a hurry," Kakashi told his student, "Since I don't have as much chakra as you it takes time… but… I'm ready now. Let's go, Naruto, Temari."

"That's what you said before?" Naruto asked as he pushed of.

"Yes, it's a new Sharingan." Kakashi answered in midair as they jumped on the trees.

"What is it Naruto?" Kakashi asked when he saw the concerned yet determined look on Naruto's face.

"Kakashi-sensei, it's okay if you screw up…" Naruto said. "Because I'll finish it off"

"Yeah…" Kakashi said in a happy tone, "If you get a chance."

"Got it," Naruto said as he continued to jump forward.

"Mangekyo Sharingan," Suddenly the space around Deidara and his claybird seemed to twist and bend, eventually it centered around his right arm. As the area grew smaller Deidara's arm snapped, breaking of. Down below Kakashi cursed. _'Damn I missed; it seems like I still can't properly control it.'_

Kakashi used the jutsu again, but this time he moved Naruto and a clone in the area above Deidara. As Naruto descended on the claybird he formed a Rasengan with the help of the clone. Deidara escaped the jutsu, Naruto ended up shredding of the head of the bird instead of grinding Deidara.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto exclaimed as he descended from the air. The clones took a firm grip on the bird's head and as they landed they softly put it down on the ground. Quickly opening the bird's head they revealed the unmoving body of Gaara.

"We'll get you"

"Gotcha, I'll fight you again soon… mm…"

"You've let your guard down," Kakashi said from a tree not far from Deidara. Just then a cutting gust of wind hit Deidara knocking him down from the tree he sat in. It was followed by Naruto who punched him in the face, increasing his speed down to the earth. Naruto formed the seal for Kage Bunshin and as four clones popped into existence they each took a grip on Deidara's legs, his left arm and his cloak. The clones along with Deidara hit the ground hard, and soon after they hit the ground Naruto landed a hard kick to Deidara. Soon thereafter they formed a Rasengan that grinded up Deidara's chest.

It was revealed that it was only a clay clone as clay spread in all directions. Anger started to flow in Naruto at seeing that it hadn't been the real Deidara that they had hit with the Rasengan and Kyuubi's chakra started to manifest around him.

'_No, not good,'_ thought Kakashi, remembering that Jiraiya had given him a slip of paper that could seal the Kyuubi's chakra as long as it was just one tail. He remembered that Jiraiya had warned him about Naruto if the Kyuubi's chakra started to manifest itself.

A second tail was about to manifest just as Kakashi slammed the slip of paper on Naruto's forehead, the chakra started to regress. Just then Sakura along with Chiyo and team Gai minus one member arrived.

"We finally caught up to you guys," Sakura exclaimed.

"Where's Temari/Tenten?" Gai and Kakashi questioned each other at the same time, seeing that one kunoichi was missing from both teams.

"I'm here," Temari announced as she landed by the others carrying Gaara.

"Still one of your…"

"He's still here," Neji interrupted Kakashi, "He's over there." It was quite obvious that he was talking about Deidara. That which were present of team Gai surrounded Deidara from the directions forcing him to run towards the clearing in which the others stood.

"Watch out for him, he's a long distance fighter that uses explosives," Kakashi warned them. Just then Deidara jumped to the claybird lying on the ground and took a bite from it.

"Take a look on my ultimate work of art! ART IS BANG!" Deidara yelled to the Konoha shinobi.

Neji who was looking at the man with his Byakugan saw the way the chakra started to move within the body. "Everybody run quickly!"

A large explosion started to spread from where Deidara stood. Kakashi unveiled his Sharingan eye and turned towards the origin of the explosion. Just as everyone braced for the explosion it started revert into one small point before it disappeared all together.

'_I made it,'_ Kakashi thought before he fell back from exhaustion.

"Are you alright Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as he caught his sensei.

"What in the world… did you do?" Sakura asked Kakashi.

"Him and the explosion, I sent them to another dimension…" Kakashi answered, "More importantly, is everyone safe?"

"We still don't know where Tenten are, but we need to get out of here though, we can look for her later." Sakura told him.

The shinobi had found a rather large field where they laid down Gaara on the ground.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked her. Sakura knew what he wanted to know but she ruefully shook her head.

"Why was Gaara, always Gaara," Naruto said, "To die like this. He's the Kazekage. He didn't just become Kazekage."

"Relax, Uzumaki Naruto," Chiyo calmly told him.

"Shut up!" Naruto lashed out at the old lady.

"If Suna hadn't put a monster in Gaara, then nothing like this would've happened!" Naruto yelled out angrily, "Did any of you even try to ask Gaara how he felt?!! What is this Jinchūriki anyway? You just arrogantly made up a word to call them!" After Naruto had yelled out his anger he started to cry.

"Naruto…" Sakura tried but was interrupted by Naruto.

"I couldn't save Sasuke… and I couldn't save Gaara… For three years I trained desperately," Naruto said between sobs, "But nothing's changed it seems."

Chiyo walked over to Gaara's body and bent down.

"Chiyo-sama! That jutsu…" Sakura exclaimed as she saw Chiyo's hands glow.

"What are you trying to do?" Naruto asked her but received no answer, "What the hell are you doing!?"

"She's… bringing back Gaara to life," Sakura told him.

* * *

A/N: My by far longest chapter now, at last that's done at least. This was almost the whole rescue Gaara arc, the end of it will be in next chapter but I decided to cut it short here. 


	7. Sokubaku no Jutsu

After running with the Jōnin on her back for ten minutes, all the while mumbling about food, Tenten had pondered over how all the Jōnin of Konohagakure was. The conclusion she had reached was that every male Jōnin was weird.

"Kakashi-san is a pervert, Gai-sensei is just… weird, Asuma-san is a chain-smoker, the proctor of the last exam, Genma was his name, always have a senbon in his mouth, no matter what." Tenten said out loud, "And this guy is talking about food when he is unconscious…"

Tenten was heading in the direction of the tracks caused by her teammates, seemed like they had sacrificed stealth for speed, at least judging from the destroyed tree branches she had seen along the way. _'Shouldn't be to far away now,'_ She had reached the outskirts of the forest where a large grass covered field lay.

* * *

"You can do that?" Naruto questioned the old lady. She just nodded as she concentrated at the task at hand. "Wow, Sensei said that not even Tsunade-obachan can do that, and she's known as the best medic in the elemental countries."

Even though Kakashi was exhausted he quirked up a little at the mention of this sensei, it couldn't be Jiraiya-sama, Naruto always called him Ero-sennin. That had to be the same man who taught Naruto that fire jutsu.

"I can't do it," Chiyo said regretfully after a few moments, "I don't have enough chakra for the jutsu."

"Can't you take some of mine old lady, I have plenty," Naruto offered.

Chiyo contemplated this for a moment. This kid was willing to risk himself for others, not thinking about the consequences for himself. It truly was one the treats that was signifying a kage, at least in the eyes of the tree hugging Konoha. "Very well, place your hands on mine and channel chakra," she told him.

Naruto did as he was told and started to channel chakra.

"You truly are worthy of becoming the kage of Konoha, if there was more people like you these things wouldn't be happening from the beginning. It is because of us old people and the grudges we hold conflicts arise. The younger generation learn from us and carries the same contempt as we, I can see that now." Chiyo said before she concentrated intently on the jutsu.

After two minutes the color returned to the Kazekage's face and it seemed like Chiyo was slipping. Just after that the old woman slumped over from exhaustion the Kazekage opened his eyes.

"Gaara, you're awake at last." Naruto said when he saw the turquoise eyes staring at him. The assembled Konoha-nin and Temari all walked up to the lying Kazekage. Just then over fifty Suna shinobi arrived to the scene surrounding them.

Kankurō along with his sister lifted up the unmoving form of Chiyo as the Kazekage rose from his lying position.

"Thanks old lady. Now we all can go back to Suna and celebrate." Naruto said towards Chiyo.

"Naruto, I'm afraid we can't do that," Sakura said hesitantly.

"Why not?"

"The jutsu was a Tensei jutsu; it isn't a medical jutsu, in the exchange for reviving a person the user needs to give up their own life force." Kankurō told him. "Originally it was created for the use in puppetering, by having living puppets it would be much more effective. But before it was even tested it was classified as a Kinjutsu by Chiyo-sama, the price one had to pay for using it was to great to be used."

Naruto was shocked, this old grumpy lady had sacrificed herself for Gaara, who at least in the past had been a Jinchūriki just like he himself. He couldn't stop himself as tears started to slowly travel down his cheeks.

A soft thud was heard from behind the Konoha-nin and standing there was Tenten with the Jōnin that had backed up team Gai on her back with his arms draped over her shoulders.

Naruto turned around and saw the new arrival, "Sensei?"

Sakura just then remembered what happened in the battle, the Jōnin had been hit by a poisoned blade and had fallen unconscious immediately. 'Kuso, how could I have forgotten,' She rushed over towards Tenten and the Jōnin "Tenten-san, lay him down on the ground, I need to make a quick diagnosis."

Tenten did as she was told and put the Jōnin on the ground.

Sakura's hand started to glow a pale green as she did he diagnostic jutsu. "Not good," She said after a few seconds.

"What is it Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"The poison has progressed even further than the state Kankurō was in when we arrived. In fifteen minutes it have progressed more than it did in two days, at this rate He'll die in less than ten minutes." Sakura said. She started the process of extracting the poison from the body but as her light green chakra touched the body a dark green chakra erupted from the place forcing her away.

"What was that?" Naruto asked, he had never seen dark green chakra before.

"I honestly don't know, but it might have a connection with as to why the process has been sped up…" Sakura said absentmindedly.

"The green chakra has a connection as to why the process was sped up, yes. It burn away the poison, however if it is a fast working poison the consequences can be fatal," they heard someone say from the ground.

Looking down at the ground Sakura saw hazel eyes staring back at her, "You were awake?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, for the last seven minutes by my estimation." He responded, "Now if you could please back of so I can stand up…"

"Then why didn't you say something?" Tenten asked the Jōnin

"Because it's too tiresome," the Konoha group all stared at him. 'He sounds like Shikamaru,' they all remarked to themselves.

Temari was walking towards the group, wondering who this injured nin was.

No one was prepared when Temari came and hefted a mighty kick towards the Jōnin that made all the assembled male shinobi that had a view of it wince and groan in sympathy for the downed Jōnin.

"Temari why did you kick him?" Kankurō asked her, the guy was obviously a Konoha nin.

"I was dating the guy two years ago and he left after we…" Temari started but soon shut her mouth as her face started to glow a red that would put the reddest of cherry to shame. Immediately the springs started to turn in the heads of everyone there, Kakashi's brain coming up with the reason in less than a nanosecond flat. The giggle that escaped Kakashi's mouth at the same moment had everyone deciding that was the most logical reason.

"It wasn't my fault Temari-chan, if it hadn't been his," Sousuke said between winces as he pointed to Naruto, "teacher that exclaimed he was the author of Icha Icha then I'd been able to stay longer,"

"Hm, whatever, I've had my revenge," Temari said.

"Really? So you won't beat me more?"

"No, I won't do that, no need to,"

Sousuke just stared at her, just what was she insinuating. He knew she had a cunning mind and women were often bent of revenge for these things. Her not beating him, there had to be a catch somewhere. As he was pondering about this he felt two persons direct strong killing intent on him. Looking up he saw the Kankurō guy and the Kazekage walking towards him, he knew that both the Kazekage and Kankurō was weakened, but so was he. His current situation could be summed up in the one word he would utter. "Shit!"

"He did it again…" Naruto muttered as Sousuke rushed up from the ground, trying to flee the best he could in his weakened state. Counting in his mind he got that to the fifth girl that he knew of, and he had only been with his sensei for about a year for kami's sake. And of that year they spent a lot of it on the roads.

Sousuke decided to take cover behind one of the nin standing around him. Now who was they less likely to hit. Naruto was out of the question, they probably knew that he would take anything and survive. 'The taijutsu guys? No way, they are too freaky, the Cyclops is out of it, the pink haired? No, way to powerful a punch,' after assessing the closest persons he dove behind the girl who had carried him there, lifting her up and using her as a living shield.

In the end he ended up on the ground, courtesy of Tenten's elbow and a kick where Temari already had kicked him. When he had hid behind her back and clasped unto her his hands had been misplaced, eliciting another perverted giggle from a tired Kakashi.

Kankurō and Gaara had stopped at that, after all they had to show the guy some sympathy by not beating up the guy for a third and fourth time, especially considering the kicks he received, they may be shinobi but they were mainly males and when a guy is hit, twice at that, at the "forbidden to hit place" then a beating could be canceled.

"We might want to head back to our villages now," Gaara said as he felt that they all had spent too much time at the field. The Suna shinobi retreated carrying the body of Chiyo with them and the Konoha nin started to travel towards Konoha.

* * *

"Sensei, you finally decided to join Konoha I see, tired of being a nuke-nin?" Naruto questioned when he saw that his sensei had regained his senses after the beating he received.

"Yes, seemed the most logical, it isn't exactly like I would like to face you after teaching you for some time," Sousuke answered, "Ah, just remembered, you is Kakashi right?" Sousuke said and pointed to the silver haired man who was piggybacking with Gai.

"Yes…" Kakashi drawled.

"I have an S-class delivery mission I received from Jiraiya-san," Sousuke said as he withdrew two books from a pouch.

Instantly Kakashi seemed to regain all his energy as he threw himself at Sousuke, taking the books before he started to proclaim his love towards "Jiriaya-sama and Han-Wu-sama".

"It's the limited rare gold edition, with sketches from the author!" Kakashi exclaimed when he opened up the first page and saw the first page which was covered in a layer of golden paint.

Sousuke though that the famous copy-nin from Konoha would faint at that moment, but to his surprise he didn't, instead he buried his head in the first book and started to run alongside everyone else, his eyes never leaving the pages of the book.

They traveled in silence as the sun traversed over the sky. Before long the sun had disappeared, replace by a faintly glowing moon, covered by clouds. They decided to set up camp by a small stream.

Using a small katon jutsu Kakashi had started the campfire before he went deep into the deep recessed of the book. He recognized this part, _'though I do not remember that happening… After all the hunter-nin said he was a boy, not a girl. And I doubt that Naruto would be able to do that, as clueless as he is… and if he had done it he would have talked about it…' _Kakashi remarked to himself as he read on. It seemed like the story had reached the time when Naruto had been in Wave country.

Sakura and Tenten glared at the perverted Jōnin who only had done one thing while setting up camp, starting up the campfire, and he hadn't even collected the wood. Almost anyone who knew a katon jutsu could do that, of course using the likes of Karyū Endan wasn't the best for the welfare of the surroundings as not only a campfire but probably a forest fire would be started by using a high level Katon.

Currently they along with Gai and Lee was setting up the tents while Neji was getting water from the stream and Naruto and Sousuke was getting more firewood.

* * *

"You know Naruto, that brown haired girl with her hair in buns…" Sousuke said to his student as they jumped through the woods looking for a place where they could get plenty of wood.

"Yes, what about her?" Naruto questioned. Within moments he regretted it, his sensei had a smile that he recognized, although not as lecherous as the one Jiriaya tended to use it was still pretty lecherous.

"She's pretty cute, do you know if she's single?"

"Not again sensei, is that the first thing you think about? Since I got to know you you've met five other girls under a longer period of time, and that's not counting the ones you probably met during the last year."

"What, can't a guy ask a important question? And I'll let you know that I've been stuck with looking for a sword for two months and after that I've trained marksmanship while crafting a companion sword to the one I found for ten months, and I'm still not done with the sword. So no girlfriend in the last twelve months actually."

"I honestly don't know sensei; I haven't talked to most of my friends yet besides she's only one year older than me. Why would you look for a sword for two months sensei, is it that special?"

"Actually it is, it belonged to a friend of mine that died tragically fifteen years ago. It was specifically crafted for him twenty years ago, took my father and me four years to complete it, sadly my father died and I was made into a human cubicle before it was given to my friend." Sousuke explained and he took out a sealing scroll, motioning for Naruto to stop just as he himself did.

The scroll contained only a single sealed object and as Sousuke swiped his blood over the seal a Tachi materialized in its Saya.

"Naruto, before you touch this blade I want you to know that there are risks with this sword, should it not accept you as its wielder when you remove it from the Saya you might be fatally wounded," Sousuke told Naruto somberly, his eyes showing slight apprehension and a slimmer of hope, like he was expecting something from this.

Naruto hesitated for a moment but quickly made up his mind. His hands traveled to the sword and grasping the Saya with his left and the Tsuka with his right he started to unsheathe the sword. Naruto saw a blue aura surrounding the blade in itself as he started to unsheathe it. There was a increasingly tingling sensation in his right hand as he removed it from its protection.

Sousuke held his breath as he saw Naruto unsheathe the Tachi, was he correct in his guess nothing would happen, was he wrong however, the likelihood of Naruto surviving was low, very low. He knew as he was one of the persons behind the protective seals of the sword and he knew that when the sword was made only three person were able to wield that sword, the makers and the to be wielder. Such were the fashion they made their swords, at least the masterpieces of their labors. There had only been thirteen swords that were sealed and had extraordinary aspects.

When Naruto had fully released the sword of its protection he heard Sousuke let out a breath that he had been holding. The sword in itself was in appearance nothing special, looking like another Tachi. Surrounding the blade was a soft blue aura that seemed to travel in different directions. "Is there something special about this sword sensei except it was to be made for your friend?"

His sensei was unresponsive just staring at him, muttering something that Naruto heard as, "Stupid perverts not wanting to tell, if I'm wrong or right, at least I was right,"

"What do you mean sensei?" Naruto questioned.

"Oh nothing," Sousuke quickly replied, waving it off. "So special powers of the sword you said, yes it have some special abilities. As you can feel on the edge it is sharp, very sharp. However the sharper the edge is the faster it dulls. With this sword you won't need to sharpen the sword with grinding stones. It is quickly done with the swipe of your finger covered in blood. It is also worthy of note that the sword will absorb blood, sharpening it as you cut. Finally the sword works as a conduit for lightning typ chakra, amplifying it, all you need to do is charge it with a Raiton jutsu, depending on the amount of chakra you can paralyze or kill by just touching the person with the blade, while you yourself are practically immune to Raiton as long as the blade touch the Jutsu first. Theoretically you can cleave another Raiton jutsu in half, at least that was what my friend told me. Now push a little chakra into the blade and take a swing at that tree." Sousuke motioned to a thick tree standing in front of them.

Naruto did as he was told and channeled chakra into the blade; using the basics he had been taught from a scroll containing how one was to manipulate Raiton jutsu. The blade cackled to life, blue bolts of electricity traveling over the blade, splitting the light blue aura surrounding it as the traveled. Naruto thought he saw a brightly blue glowing spiral at the base of the blade before it was covered in chakra, sounding a lot like Kakashi's Chidori.

"Naruto! I said a LITTLE chakra, not a humongous amount." Sousuke exclaimed when he saw that the whole blade was covered in the chakra. "Don't get that blade near me now, it would kill me."

"Sorry sensei, it was easier than I thought,"

"Of course it was, it was designed to be easy to manipulate, even a complete moron can do it. For the user, the drawbacks being that one need to make contact with the blade. Now hit the tree and see how much damage a fully charged blade makes."

Naruto did as he was told and swung the blade, what happened wasn't something he expected, sure he expected it to be powerful seeing as how much chakra he apparently had charged it with, but to blow away a three feet thick three wasn't one of his expectations.

"Now you see why you shouldn't charge it up that much, using that in a spar might not be the healthiest for your partner. Learn to channel the chakra into the blade so only occasionally a streak of electricity or two travel over it, then it will stun the person a little and when it constantly is covered by a few streaks it will paralyze, covered by more than twenty it will make the person faint and when it have a thin layer covering the whole blade it have a chance to kill, any more than that will kill with utmost certainty. You train that while I collect wood, I'll just take some of the larger chunks of wood from the tree. Use the Kage Bunshin technique"

"Hai sensei, Kage Bunshin no jutsu," Naruto exclaimed as thirty bunshins popped into existence.

"Don't be back until you've learned it. And one last piece of advice, don't ever let another person grasp the Tsuka, unless they are related to you. Otherwise you are the lone wielder of the blade, since for me it is just another blade, the special abilities of the sword can only be used by selected persons." Sousuke said as he jumped to the remains of the once majestic tree, now reduced to smaller chunks, a crown and a stump. He took as much wood as he was able to carry and left to the camp. Just as he left the soon to be artificially created glade he heard the sound of several trees torn to pieces.

* * *

The Konoha teams heard a low explosion in the distance, breaking the silence that had fallen over the camp. Instantly the whole team was at attention.

"Neji, Kakashi, you two go and look what that was," Gai ordered, "We stay here if it was just a distraction.

With great reluctance Kakashi rose from his sitting position on a tree branch and pocketed the precious book he had been reading_. 'Why now of all times, there was just another "interesting" segment in the story,'_ Kakashi complained in his mind.

Neji to rose from the branch he had been sitting on, opposite of Kakashi's in the same tree, while deactiviating his Byakugan and quickly wiping his nose with his sleeve before jumping down on the ground.

The two shinobi started their way towards the origins of the explosions that was heard occasionally but were decreasing. After five minutes they met Sousuke running in their direction.

"What's that sound?" Kakashi asked as the three shinobi stopped on some branches.

"That's Naruto training, his control is pretty sucky, even after two years of training it." Sousuke replied. "I doubt he'll ever be able to use medical chakra."

"Hm, that's probably correct, well let's get back to camp then if it's just Naruto training." Kakashi said nonchalantly as he took up his book from the pouch and set of towards to the camp while reading.

Sousuke saw that the long haired guy activated his Dōjutsu as Kakashi took out the book from his pouch. 'What was it Naruto told me about that Dōjutsu… yeah it could see through things and also see chakra… I think he was of the Hyuuga family.'

"You know what Hyuuga boy?"

"What is it?" Neji questioned the Jōnin jumping behind him.

"It is rather rude to read over someone's shoulder,"

Neji just stared blankly at the Jōnin, like he hadn't done anything while his mind was all in another set. _'Damn, it was the perfect crime, how could he find out?' _Just then a copy of the book was stretched out in front of him, it wasn't the limited edition but it was the same book as Kakashi was reading. Holding the book was the Jōnin, the firewood had been put in the arms of a Kage bunshin.

"Just watch out for the women, I've heard that they don't like these books that much." Sousuke told the Hyuuga.

'_That must be__ the understatement of the millennia,'_ Neji thought, so far the ones reading the books in public had only received dirty looks from most of the women in Konoha. "Thanks," Neji said to the Jōnin. "How come you have more than one book anyway? I saw that you had a full pouch of them."

"Um… because I feel like it…" Sousuke replied. _'Great idiot, that sounded really moronic, I bet not even the weird green clad guys would buy that.'_ Sousuke though at he started to mentally beat himself. To his surprise the Hyuuga boy just let out a "hn" and started to read the book while he jumped towards the camp.

Just before they reached the camp the book disappeared from Neji's hands, ending up in a concealed pouch he had on the inside of his shirt.

"What was it that we heard?" Gai inquired from the three returning shinobi.

"Just Naruto training his Raiton affinity with a conduit," Sousuke told the green clad man.

Now this caught Kakashi's attention, Naruto had a Raiton affinity. Just what had he been taught during the last years, maybe this young man would be able to answer these questions. Afterall Naruto hadn't shown any special abilities during the test that they had conducted under the Godaime's supervision, there it would just seem that Naruto had improved on his already existing abilities.

"You're the man who taught Naruto along with Jiraiya-sama?" Kakashi questioned he had heard some about the man from Jiraiya prior to the Suna mission.

"Hai, that I did,"

"So he have an affinity for Raiton you say…"

"Yes, but not only that, he have affinity for Fūton as well."

"What is it you've taught him?"

"You'll find out eventually Kakashi-san. Now if you excuse me I'm going to sleep." Sousuke said and walked away.

"But wait, what about guarding the camp, we need to set up shifts," Sakura said to the Jōnin.

"Alright, I'll leave guarding camp to you guys, night," Sousuke said absentmindedly while waving his hand to the two teams. For a moment a thick fog moved in around the camp, concentrating around the Jōnin and when it was gone, so was the Jōnin.

They were unable to locate the man in the area around the camp, it seemed like he had disappeared into thin air. After the fruitless search they set up guard shifts excluding the Jōnin.

* * *

After four hours Naruto walked into the camp, his clothes scratched and torn with a sword strapped to his back. When he reached the closest tent he collapsed on the ground exhausted. He had nearly exhausted his vast chakra stores while trying to learn how to manipulate Raiton in the sword and in the end he had managed to do it just like his sensei said, having just one or two occasional streams of lightning traveling over the blade. It had been hard to release that small amount of chakra needed but he had managed to do it.

Lee was the one that was sitting guard at the moment and when he saw Naruto slump over in exhaustion he took his fellow Konoha-nin and laid him in the tent the teams had prepared for Naruto. "Yosh, Naruto-kun's flames of youth burn brightly, as not to extinguish them I Rock Lee will take his shift."

As if it was fate Naruto was supposed to have the shift after Lee so it really would not be a problem for the eccentric boy, he just needed to wake up Tenten instead in one and a half hour, and even though she tended to be grumpy recently he would manage.

* * *

Tenten had been woken not by Naruto but Lee, apparently Lee did not want to "extinguish the flames of youth Naruto had displayed by training himself into the ground by making him stay awake,"

After getting up and walking outside laying some firewood on the almost dying embers that had been the fire Tenten took a stroll around the camp. When she returned she jumped into the tree that stood in the middle of their camp, using it as a observation platform.

After sitting there for half an hour with nothing to do Tenten sat there juggling with a kunai. 'Being guard is so boring,' Not even a single animal had entered the glade they had set up camp in.

"Pocky," she heard someone mumble from above.

"Who is there?" she asked while preparing herself for a possible fight, getting no response she threw a senbon in the direction she had heard the voice from. 'No one have left their tent so it must be someone else.'

She watched in amazement as the Jōnin from earlier materialized hanging upside from a branch with a yelp before he started to fall down to the ground bellow.

Tenten clasped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud at the Jōnin lying in a heap on the ground giving her a dirty look.

"Was that really necessary, I was having a nice dream, mind you!" He whispered angrily in her direction.

"Che, how were you even able to sleep there, hanging upside down no less?" Now that was the most confusing part about how the Jōnin had slept, she had never heard of anyone doing that. Sure there were some weird occurrences in the shinobi world, but sleeping while hanging upside down was something that usually was reserved for bats.

"Easy, sticking to a surface is like a second nature to me and I can do it in my sleep if I meditate myself to sleep."

"Well since you're awake and all, you can take over my shift, just make sure to wake up Kakashi-san in thirty-five minutes." Tenten ordered as she jumped down from the tree and started to walk towards her tent.

"Hey wait a minute, I'm not doing any guard duty, that wasn't included in the mission I receive, I was only supposed to back you guys up."

"Well to bad, you're guarding instead of me." Tenten told him and opened the zipper to the tent but just as she was about to enter a hand on her shoulder dragged her back outside.

"A duel will decide, I lose I guard, you lose you guard, fair?" Sousuke said smugly.

Tenten didn't need to think twice, ranks be damned, she could surely take out this overconfident Jōnin. "Sure, you'll be waking up Kakashi in thirty-five minutes Jōnin-san."

* * *

Kakashi woke up when he heard a clang of metal some distance away. Silently walking out in the dark night he didn't see anyone guarding the camp. Glancing down at the clock he saw that his supposed guard shift had started an hour ago._ 'Why not wake me up?'_ He questioned, it didn't seem like a battle had occurred in the area and usually shinobi was more eager to be relieved from guard duty rather than staying on it.

He heard another clang of metal clashing in the direction of the stream, barely audible over the stream. He started to walk towards the stream and when he reached it he saw Tenten that was supposed to wake him up and the Jōnin that ran away earlier running at each other with swords drawn. _'So that was the noise,' _He sat down on the grass and watched the spar that seemed to have went overboard a little. The two was practically drenched in water, probably from falling into the stream.

-

Tenten had when she saw the Jōnin summon a Nodachi with a over five shaku long blade expected her fight to be short, considering she preferred two smaller Wakizashi she was much quicker and should be able to out maneuver him. To her surprise he had moved at a speed that matched hers while handling the long sword. They had now been at it for over one and a half hour and she was getting exhausted, but he seemed to barely have broken a sweat. It had been a silent and mutual agreement that no Ninjutsu and Genjutsu should be used, this fight would be decided on purely Taijutsu and Kenjutsu.

"You're pretty good girl, but me-sama is much better," Sousuke declared to her, he was apparently very arrogant in fights it would seem.

'Hn, let's wipe that smirk of his face, considering that Sōshōryū just is a summoning technique of weapons I can use that,' Tenten sheathed her two blades and took out two scrolls as she jumped back some extra distance.

Sousuke was disturbed by the confident smile the girl adored on her face, it was cute, but he got a feeling that whatever she was planning would hurt.

"Sōshōryū" the girl exclaimed as the two scrolls transformed into two clouds of smoke taking the form of two rising dragons circling her. Soon weapons started to fly at him at a rapid pace and he was soon at his knees trying to block them all. When the barrage seemingly was over and he had come out with only some minor cuts he was surprised when she used wire to draw the swords to her and launch them at him yet again. This time he came out with more than a few minor cuts, a kunai she had thrown was embedded in his left thigh, hampering his movements.

"You should give up Jōnin-chan, with that injury you won't be able to match my speed." Tenten mocked, she was nearly at her limit but with that injury he shouldn't be able to match her. It seemed like he was going to do as she said as he sheathed his Nodachi and sealed it within a scroll, but as he pocketed the scroll containing the sword he took out another scroll from which he summoned ten kunai.

"That does it, you will learn to not underestimate one of the former members of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu" Jōnin exclaimed 'No one calls me chan, especially not without approval from me!' he seemed to vanish from the air only to appear behind Tenten, "Never expose your back, Kirigakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōugi, Sennen Gurushi" he said as he threw the kunai in his hands at Tenten from nearly point blank.

Kakashi was staring at the Jōnin that to him had thrown enough kunai to ensure a kill. 'He nearly ripped of the same name as sensei's technique, he just changed village and to pain instead of death,' However the technique was not the same, this one seemed to be more deadly from the start. Kakashi prepared to jump in and at least try minimize the damage and take out the Jōnin.

Tenten froze as she heard noticed the man appear behind him and heard him call out the jutsu he was going to use. To her surprise she just saw the kunai fly harmlessly into the dark night or the dark water, not once touching her skin. "You missed," she told him smugly as she turned around to face him. _'What a Jōnin, he missed me from point blank,_' even though she was glad that he missed when he had gone through with the technique it was somewhat confusing how the guy could have handled himself so good earlier.

"No, I did not," Sousuke replied as he jumped back from her. "The jutsu did exactly what it was supposed to,"

Tenten and Kakashi stared at the Jōnin in confusion, just what was he implying at… As Tenten took a step it all cleared for Kakashi and soon Tenten as joined him, though her thought was far more bent of revenge and anger rather than Kakashi's of the ingenious use of such an technique, he had to have the Jōnin teach him it. It would be most useful in a spar against Kurenai or Anko for example.

Tenten felt the chilly drift of the wind traveling over her bare skin as most of her clothes started to fall of, disappearing in the murky water of the stream. One piece of apparel stayed whole, for which she was thankful.

"I knew you wrapped you chest, I just knew it!" Sousuke exclaimed as he pointed at her. _'So Kakashi left now did he,' _he remarked to himself as he no longer could detect Kakashi's presence in the immediate area.

* * *

The morning came swiftly and Naruto woke up to the smell of food cooking. As he arrived where the everyone sat he noticed someone missing. "Where's Sousuke-sensei?"

Silence reigned for a while before Tenten spoke up, "He's by the river," she said angrily. Apparently everyone was scared of Tenten this morning, and so was Naruto so he quickly left to the river to look for his sensei before eating.

Lying by the edge of the stream was his sensei, bound with several layers of wire, a gag and a lot of bruises. Naruto set to the task of untying his sensei. "Sheesh sensei, what happened to you?" Naruto asked as he took out the gag of his mouth. Unwrapping the gag it was revealed to be a thorn shirt that he recognized but couldn't quite place.

"That girl Tenten happened," was the response Naruto received. Suddenly it clicked in Naruto's mind, hadn't Tenten worn a similar shirt yesterday that was now holding in his hand, though this one was torn to pieced obviously.

"What did you do sensei?" Naruto questioned as he unwrapped the wire which seemed to be nearly endless.

"Nothing, just defeated her in a spar, fair and square."

"Right…" Naruto said disbelievingly, if it was something he knew about his sensei, judging from the spars he had against Jiraiya, fair play in spars wasn't Sousuke's game. Nine out of ten spars ended with the use of Harem no jutsu. "Well now the wire is of so lets go and eat,"

Teacher and student walked towards the campfire and as Naruto sat down with his comrades he was offered a plate of food. Sousuke was about to take some food for himself when he was stopped by Tenten.

"You're not getting any food, you didn't help out with guarding last night, instead you disappeared," she said vehemently.

"But…" The look he was given was enough to shut him up, he knew that testing her temper wasn't the best move. His sensitive sense of smell also telling him this wasn't the day to stand up against the girl. Doing that might have him ending up in some royal pain.

* * *

Tsunade sat at her desk overwhelmed by the paperwork she had received and all the while she was worried about the two teams she had sent to Suna. She could not help but wonder if Naruto had made it through the encounter with Akatsuki. She heard an urgent nock on the door and wasted no time in getting away from the paperwork for at least a little time. "Come on in."

The door opened and revealed Shizune carrying Tonton, "They are back Tsunade-sama."

"What are you waiting for then, send them in." Tsunade ushered and the teams walked into the office. "How did it go Kakashi,"

"It all went well. We managed to rescue the Kazekage and..." Kakashi begun before he collapsed to the floor, much to everyone's surprise. Sakura rushed to her old sensei's side and ran a quick diagnosis of him, concluding that he was exhausted and it was unlikely for him to move for a few days.

"I think he finished the books," Sousuke said idly from the side. No matter how they all reasoned that was the only plausible reason as to why he had managed to get the energy he had displayed prior to them arriving in Konoha, before he got them he had even been unable to walk by himself.

"I think we should get Kakashi-sensei to the hospital so he can rest up under watchful eyes," Sakura said.

"Well I got the most important detail of the success of the mission, I'll just read the written report later. All Jōnin that was apart of this mission write their own report," Tsunade ordered eliciting a groan from the newly instated Konoha Jōnin.

"This is why I hate being Jōnin," they all heard him mutter.

"Well you're all dismissed except Sūn-san, Shizune could you take Kakashi-san to the hospital." Everyone was soon gone from the office with the exception of the Hokage and Sousuke.

"Now then Sūn-san, we need to run some tests on you before I really can allow you to go on regular mission for Konoha, even though Jiraiya can vouch for you that isn't enough. We also need to evaluate your skills so we can place you in proper teams." Tsunade explained.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Sousuke said.

"Tomorrow you will be at training ground thirty where we will perform some tests. You are dismissed for now."

* * *

Naruto sat slurping down his ramen with great fervor, he actually hadn't had a chance to eat Ichiraku's since he was in Konoha two and a half years earlier. And the ramen he had eaten outside of Konoha paled in comparison to Ichiraku's. "Old man, this is the best ramen in the world," he proclaimed to the old man working behind the counter.

"Thanks Naruto, when people say that it makes me really glad," the old man said to the blond. Ever since Naruto left the profits had decreased by a quite large margin. Now before him sat Naruto along with the Sakura girl and another team of shinobi, apparently they had been on a mission together.

"So how was your latest mission Naruto?" Teuchi asked his favorite customer.

"It was a S-class mission and we saved the Kazekage. You shold have seen me, beat the ass out of the damn Akatsukoi." Naruto said. Team Gai and Sakura didn't bother to correct the Genin, to put it in the words of one of Konoha's laziest shinobi it was just too "Troublesome".

"Now Naruto, what did I say about bragging?" a voice saud frim behind making dread crawl ip Naruto's spine.

"When bragging don't over-exaggerate to much. Naruto responded stiffly.

"Good, at least you remember even though you don't heed my words. I would like a large beef ramen." Sousuke said as he seated himself beside Naruto. "Naruto, which bowl are you on?"

"My first actually,"

"Get ready to lose Naruto,"

"You're on sensei, Old man keep the bowls coming here,"

* * *

An hour later you could see piles upon piles of bowls standing on the counter beside two men, five persons staring at the ones that had eaten the sixty bowls of ramen with their eyes wide as saucers. Standing behind the counter was the owner of the ramen stand rubbing his hands together. "That'll be 22800 ryō please," Ayame said, her father seemingly too far into the world of thinking of the profits if those two would continue to eat there.

Faster than anyone thought possible Sousuke and Naruto was up from their seats, seconds ago they had been near to belching. Naruto formed a two seals, one on each hand and charged up a large amount of chakra. "Sensei, we might have come to a draw but this time you're paying. Sokubaku no Jutsu!"

The Jōnin that had been running out of the stand started to go backwards even though he was running forwards, his feet just kicking up dust. "Naruto just how much chakra did you put in that Jutsu!" Sousuke exclaimed before he left the ground and started flying backwards ramming into the group.

"About five percent of my chakra? Well have fun paying sensei, I know you can afford it," Naruto exclaimed as he left the stand.

Sousuke rose up from the pile that had been created of Team Gai and Sakura after two steps he felt the familiar tug of his own jutsu. _'Just who did he put it on?'_

The team and Sakura stood up, Sakura promising Naruto pain next time they met. But with a loud "Kya!" Tenten flew forward from the group towards Sousuke who stood by the counter and paid for the ramen muttering about stupid kids using his own jutsu against him. She smacked into him and quickly backed off but after putting one and a half meters distance from the Jōnin she felt that she could not walk any further from him.

"No don't tell me…" Sousuke said as he saw the girl that was trying to get away from him but obviously could not as her feet just skidded against the ground. Things were not looking up for him this day. First he had gotten beat up for peeking in the hot springs when he was just looking for the self-proclaimed super pervert Jiraiya and now he was apparently stuck with this girl, at least it could not get much worse.

"Sousuke-san, what was that jutsu Naruto used?" Sakura asked the now cursing Jōnin.

"It is a jutsu that binds together two objects that emit chakra," Sousuke answered before he started another string of curses.

"Can't you just break it?" Tenten asked, she did not want to be stuck with this guy.

"No, at least not while both objects, or in this case persons, emits chakra. Meaning it can be stopped, problem is that one of us has to die first."

Neji who had activated his Byakugan saw the whole system built up that connected to two persons with chakra. In a way it was like magnetism but with chakra. The bodies were connected with threads of chakra from different tenketsu in a intricate system. Not a single tenketsu was left unused. There was no way that one would be able to cut it of without damaging or possibly killing one or both of the victims of the jutsu. "It is a perfect jutsu for binding together people," he concluded to the teams.

"Yeah, I know, it was I who made it in conjunction with a good friend of mine," Sousuke said, "And I should never have taught the brat how to do it, he used up a god damn five percent of his chakra to make it, it will last for weeks. Five percent of my chakra is enough to last five weeks so he should be able to hold it up for nearly eight."

"Eight weeks! You're telling me I might be stuck with you for eight weeks!" Tenten screeched making the group put their hands over their ears to protect them at least a little.

"I don't like it anymore than you do panda girl but that's how it is. There isn't a counter to this jutsu, you could say it is a 'fire and forget' jutsu and Naruto put the proximity very close apparently it would seem."

"That was very unyouthful of Naruto," Gai exclaimed.

"So there is nothing you can do about it Sousuke-san?" Sakura asked.

"Nope, not a single thing, ask Jiraiya and believe me, he's tried."

"Well then my youthful students and comrades, I must leave you now because I have a report to fill in," Gai proclaimed before he puffed out of existence.

"So do I," Neji said before he left the group.

"And I must train," Lee told them before he ran off to the training grounds.

"And I have to work at the hospital, apparently there was lots of people sick today, see you guys," Sakura said apologetic before she too went her way.

"Now panda girl, I think it is time to exact our revenge on a certain blond." Sousuke said before he jumped of, nearly jerking the unprepared Tenten to the ground.

"Hey, give me a warning next time you stupid Jōnin."

"Sorry, thought you were prepared. He headed in this direction." Sousuke said as he started jumping from roof to roof occasionally sniffing the air. After ten minutes they were atop the Yondaime's head on the hokage monument where Naruto sat.

The two shinobi silently crept up to the unsuspecting boy and positioned themselves behind him. "Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōugi Sennen Goroshi!" Sousuke said as he used the technique that he himself had been a victim of some time ago from his blond friend.

"Revenge is sweet Naruto, remember that," Sousuke said to the screaming Naruto.

Sitting at the stone head of the Yondaime was Tenten with a feeling of dread overcoming her as she realized something. She was stuck with a guy for possibly eight weeks; her parents were going to have a fit over this whole thing for certain. Even though she was a kunoichi her parents were still very strict to her when it came to boys. _'No no no, this is going to be bad.'_

"So panda girl, revenge have been given, what to do now in this town?"

'How can he move so much after the amounts he have eaten?' Tenten silently wondered. "I have a name and it is Tenten… and I think we should go to the hokage to clear this up, she might come up with a way to solve this."

"Che, I doubt it. No one has ever broken out of this jutsu. It is the ultimate prank jutsu."

-

After a long wait time and a pretty short meeting with the hokage, who broke down laughing when she heard the story behind their situation, they came to the conclusion to that all they could do was wait until the jutsu wore off. Sousuke's tests were postponed due to this development and Tenten was excused from missions until then.

"Aw man this sucks," Sousuke proclaimed as he sat down by the river beside training ground thirteen.

"No kidding…"

"And I need to find somewhere to stay as well,"

"If you haven't noticed you are still stuck with me," Tenten huffed. He was wondering where he was going to stay, she had a bigger problem, explaining the situation to her parents.

After sitting there for an hour, finding no way to explain the whole thing to her parents Tenten decided to just get over with it. The sun was nearly setting anyway so she needed to hurry home anyway or her parents would be frantic since they most likely had heard that they had returned from the mission. To her surprise Sousuke laid in the grass sleeping, deciding to take some extra revenge she kicked him in the ribs. Making him to wake up.

"What is it now?" the disoriented man asked. _'Now where am I? Yeah, I was in Konoha. And Naruto that idiot used my jutsu and bound me to the brunette, damn him.'_

"I need to head home now or else my parents will send out the hounds to look for me." Tenten said. "Follow me now,"

Sousuke followed the brunette through Konoha for fifteen minutes when they stopped in the middle of the market district for Shinobi. "This is a weapons shop…" Sousuke said as they walked through the door.

"I live here, my parents run the shop and I occasionally help out." Tenten explained and as they walked inside.

The whole store was filled with various weapons, everything a shinobi could wish for was there. Sousuke walked up to one of the swords that was placed on a rack and unsheathed the sword and started to analyze it. "Nice design, good balance and a sharp edge, very nice sword you have here," he remarked.

"Thank you very much," said a male voice from behind him, "I make them myself, interested in buying one you man?"

"Nah, I have my own of very high quality." Sousuke responded as he turned around. The man was of medium height standing around fifteen centimeters shorter than him with wild brown hair and calculating brown eyes. The scar over his left cheek told Sousuke that this man most likely had been an active shinobi even though that most likely was some years ago.

"You sure, you won't find any better in the whole Hi no Kuni," the man told him.

"Mine are some of the best from Kirigakure," Sousuke said confidently.

"Really, I haven't heard of swords of really high quality from Kiri since year's back when I still was an active ninja. And that was twenty years ago at least."

Tenten just stared at the exchange; apparently her father had yet to see her.

"Then behold this sword," Sousuke said confidently as he took out a scroll from his pocket and smeared blood over a seal. From the scroll a katana with a ebony colored saya appeared. When the sword was unsheathed partially it revealed a dragon at the base of the blade with three claws at each arm.

"This is… a blade made by Shào Kāng," the man choked out.

"That it is, I have over a hundred blades made by Shào Kāng, and also quite a few from his apprentice."

"Honey, come here, this man has a lot of Shào Kāng blades." The man yelled towards the inner parts of the store. Soon a beautiful woman walked out from the door behind the counter. She had long dark brown hair stretching to her waist and mesmerizing chocolate brown eyes. Sousuke could definitely see where the brunette he was stuck with got her looks from, if she would look like that in a couple of years, kami-sama she would have guys throwing themselves at her in just a few years.

The woman walked over and looked at the blade and was quick to snatch it up and inspect the handwork. "It truly is, wouldn't it be nice if you were able to reproduce this piece of art?" she questioned the man. As she reached over and handed the sword back to Sousuke she caught sight of Tenten standing behind the man.

"Tenten-chan!" she cried out as she walked around the man and hugged her daughter who by now was flushing crimson as Sousuke started to laugh at her expense. "Why were you just standing there behind this man come here, you must tell me all about the mission. You know we got worried when we heard that your team had returned yet you hadn't come home yet."

The woman started to take Tenten with her towards the back but after a few steps she Tenten stop. "What is it dear?"

"I can't walk any further…" Tenten begun.

"What do you mean you can't walk any further?" her father questioned as he looked up from the sword Sousuke had summoned instead of the one he had shown earlier.

"That would indirectly be my fault," Sousuke said as he sealed the sword back into the scroll.

"What do you mean your fault?" the woman asked.

"You see I have this student and he and I had an eating contest ending in a draw, supposedly the loser pays but we have yet to have victor so when it is a draw the one who is left at the stand in the one who pays. He used a jutsu that essentially binds two people together for a period of time on me and your daughter so now we cannot be a distance longer than one and a half meter away from each other," Sousuke explained.

"So how long exactly is it that you two are stuck together…" the man questioned.

'Uh oh, not good, he seems like he's going to blow any second now.' Sousuke mused before he answered. "Approximately eight weeks I would think, please just read this note." Sousuke gave the man a note that he had gotten from the hokage explaining everything according to her, he himself hadn't seen it. The man had seemed like he was going to take one of the many swords on the shelves and slice Sousuke into tiny pieces.

Five minutes later husband and wife stood shoulder to shoulder reading the piece of paper. The man had calmed down, somewhat.

"I am Bukiyashiki Kenji and this is my wife Chao Lian," the man before the motioned to Tenten, "and that is our daughter Tenten who you already met. Welcome to our house,"

'_They are accepting this? Just what did that note say…?'_ Tenten silently wondered.

"I'm staying here?" Sousuke questioned, just what was written in that piece of paper that now was tucked into Kenji's pocket.

"Yes, it is better to have our daughter here and you as well rather than her staying with you alone. Now I'll expect both of you to help out in the store as, Tenten for you it is as your usual chore but for him it is to pay for the extra costs we have with another person living here."

"Otou-san, where is he going to sleep? We don't have a extra bed." Tenten questioned, she still could not understand.

"Why, in your bed of course,"

"Where am I going to sleep?"

"In your bed as well, you can't go more than five feet away from each other anyway, right? And one more thing Sousuke-san, any funny business with my daughter and you might find that you're missing something very dear… Good night you two." Kenji said before he and Chao Lian went into the back of the store heading upstairs.

True, outside it was dark so Tenten locked the door to the store with Sousuke in tow before the two went to the back through the store into a fairly large kitchen from which they walked up a staircase to a hallway. Walking down to the hall they came to what was Tenten's room. When she opened the room Sousuke was surprised, the walls were all pink. _'Kami-sama, kill me instead.'_ It was not the impression he had gotten from the girl, she seemed very much like a tomboy and here she had a pink room, complete with a bed with pink sheets. _'At least it is a large bed.'_

"You lie towards the wall, if you touch me I'll kill you," Tenten said, "Now close your eyes, I need to change." Sousuke did as he was told and then he felt the girl take his Hitai-ate and cover up his eyes. He spent five minutes as he heard clothes shuffle before she told him that he could remove the hitai-ate.

"Che took you long enough, anyway why did I need to close my eyes, it isn't exactly like I haven't seen you without nearly any clothes on…" She just gave the Jōnin a dirty look as he took out a scroll from his vest pocked and summoned something he could sleep in at night, a pair of sweatpants. Without a word warning he had changed into his sweatpants, leaving a flushed Tenten staring at him. "What is it?"

"Nothing, just go to the bed, and keep yourself at your side of the bed."

* * *

Naruto was leisurely walking down the streets of Konoha when he saw his sensei coming towards him with Tenten close behind. It seemed like his sensei had gotten yet another beating.

"What happened to you sensei?" Naruto yelled while still some distance away. Sousuke had quickly closed the distance between them.

"Thank you so not very much Naruto for using that jutsu on a girl that is in her time of the month, I doubt I'll survive these eight weeks stuck with her." Sousuke whispered in Naruto's ear so only Naruto was able to hear.

"Eight weeks? Didn't you say it was just a short time jutsu?"

"It is used as that yes, when I use under one tenth of a percent of my chakra it lasts for a couple of hours, if you used five percent it lasts maybe eight weeks," Sousuke explained. Naruto just started to scratch his head in a uneasy fashion. 'This does not bode well,' "Something you want to tell me Naruto?"

"Well you see sensei, I'm not entirely sure how much chakra I used, but it was more than five percent, but I can guarantee that it was less than ten." Naruto said.

"You used so much!" Sousuke and Tenten yelled in unison. They had both quickly done the math for this equation, they were not stuck for eight weeks; rather it was between eight to sixteen weeks.

"I guess I'll see you around then," Naruto said as he formed the ram seal and wordlessly created forty Kage Bunshin that dispersed in different directions along with the original. Sousuke and Tenten gave up before they even started to pursue, it would be pointless anyway. What had been done had been done already.

"I'll guess we'll have to get along then," Sousuke said.

"Yeah, I guess. As long as you don't creep up on me again, next time I won't be as nice."

"I crept up to you!? It was I who saw by the wall, it was you who was lying on me, not the other way around."

* * *

"The council and Danzo have forced me to put another member on Team Kakashi to ensure that Naruto don't run away after Sasuke, I also need to put another leader for the team temporarily so that they can complete their new mission. I think Yamato would be perfect for this mission." Tsunade explained as she along with Jiraiya, an ANBU and Shizune stood in Kakashi's room.

"You know, I think we should get Sousuke here as well," Jiraiya spoke up.

"Fine go and get him then, but the girl needs to be out of this discussion." Tsunade said.

"Girl, what girl?" Jiraiya asked as he jumped onto the windowsill.

"You haven't heard from Naruto yet? Well you'll see what I'm talking about. He'll most likely be at the Bukiyashiki weapons store."

Twenty minutes later a laughing Jiraiya came down the halls of the hospital with a grumbling Sousuke in tow. "This is karma, you're getting back what you and your blond friend did to me."

"This is not funny." Sousuke said as he carried the sleeping Tenten. "Remind me why I had to put her into unconsciousness."

"Because this is a matter concerning Naruto and his inhabitant and she as a part of the younger generation can't know this. This is a matter concerning us that have been the teachers of Naruto, will be his leader and the hokage." Jiriaya said seriously.

"Understood." Sousuke said as he followed Jiraiya through a door.

"Finally Jiraiya, what took you so long?" Tsunade questioned.

"I had to laugh at this guy." Jiriaya said as he pointed to Sousuke.

"Hn, well back to business then. Jiraiya you had something you wanted to show us."

"Yes Tsunade," Jiraiya said before he took of his shirt revealing an ugly scar going from a spiral with several jags going out from it. "This is the result of when Naruto gained the fourth tail of the Kyuubi. I think Sousuke better explain, that was one of two times I've ever been near death so I was pretty out of it then."

"Very well Jiraya, it was some time back, about thirteen months ago to be more precise."

* * *

"Naruto, you're weak," Sousuke said to his student as he was slashing at him. This only seemed to further aggravate his student as Naruto's slashes became wilder.

"Shut up sensei, I'm working as hard as I can!" Naruto yelled to his sensei as he did a vertical slash that was blocked. His eyes had changed from blue to red and the pupils had become just thin slits.

"I know you're working as hard as you can and in that sense you are strong. It is your emotions that make you weak." Sousuke said as he blocked a slash aimed towards his neck.

"So what you are telling me is that emotions are wrong?" Naruto questioned.

"In a sense, yeah I do."

Naruto could feel the anger rising up in him, empowering him. He saw that the red chakra of Kyuubi started to lick around his body. "Why does it make me weaker if I get this power?" Naruto questioned as he unleashed an attack that was faster than ever before.

From the side Jiraiya watched in interest, he was curious as to how far Naruto could go with the transformation of Kyuubi's chakra, and it seemed like he would get an opportunity to see it now.

"You'll never get back that Sasuke-gaki if you continue to let your emotions rule you. To be honest if I hade been you I would have killed him," Sousuke continued.

Naruto felt his power increase even more as he became angrier and failed to notice that his slashes had gone from at least somewhat graceful arcs as they had been at the beginning to choppy waves.

"Naruto! Stop it now, that is weakness!" Sousuke yelled out as Naruto's chops became almost bone crushing and hard to block.

With a sizzling sound a fourth tail started to manifest from Naruto's body and the chakra felt much more sinister than before. The chakra covering him was a much darker red now. "It feels good," he announced from within the dark haze.

"This is bad," Naruto heard Sousuke said as he jumped away, after that he felt his consciousness drift away.

Sousuke reached the tree just as the chakra took a more solid form around Naruto. "Jiraiya get back, this is going to go bad."

"What do you mean?" Jiraiya asked as he jumped after Sousuke who was leaving the glade.

"From what I remember when a Jinchūriki reaches the fourtailed state and above they lose control of themselves, attacking everything in sight."

"How do you know this?" Jiraiya questioned.

"I just do alright, I don't want to talk about it. But do this now, run." Just then a red arm made out of chakra grasped Sousuke, throwing him towards a tree. Just before impact Sousuke formed a handseal and put his hands to his forehead, "Rasen Fūin, Kai!" the spiral seal in the middle of his forehead disappeared, his teeth taking on a more animalistic look and his nails changing into a form of claws.

Before Naruto managed to grasp Jiraiya and throw him into a tree as well he was kicked harshly by Sousuke who was now enveloped in a red chakra as well. Jiraiya noted that the level of chakra Sousuke had was now nearly the same as Naruto, having about three fourths of the amount Naruto had.

The two became blurs as they exchanged hits, no one of the backing of. Soon the two of them stood preparing a jutsu. In Naruto's hand was a rasengan made purely out of the Kyuubi's potent chakra and opposite him stood Sousuke, his sword glowing brightly orange. "Rasengan!" "Kaze no Kami!" The two attacks clashed and came to a standstill seemingly taking out each other but after ten seconds the Rasengan started to overpower the sword before a large explosion blew both combatants apart.

Jiraiya saw Naruto coming at him at a high speed with a rasengan in his hand that he pushed into his stomach, sending him barrelling into a brick wall of a nearby town. He stared through his dazed view as Naruto walked closer forming another rasengan, preparing to thrust it into the sannin, finishing him. Just as the thrust was about to connect Jiraiya was snatched up, the thrust hitting the wall and obliterating it.

"Be more careful Jiraiya, this isn't the usual Naruto we are dealing with here. We need to knock him out fast." Sousuke said. It was first now that Jiraiya noticed that Sousuke's eyes had turned crimson instead of the usual hazel and the pupils were slit. "I hope you'll forgive me Jiraiya, but I need to knock him out fast before he destroys this town, it is enough that he already knocked down the whole west wall and some buildings."

Again Sousuke found himself in the path of another rasengan but this time he wasn't going to meet it head on, instead he used his sword that he had charge with wind natured chakra, propelling himself up into the air above Naruto who shoved the rasengan into the ground and was looking up at Sousuke who was falling down towards him.

"Sleep tight!" Sousuke screamed as he smashed down the flat side of his sword into Naruto's head, knocking him out.

After he had knocked out Naruto Sousuke rushed to Jiraiya who was drifiting in and out of consciousness. "Rasen Fūin!" he said as he put his hand to his forehead and the seal appeared again, his appearance changing back to normal. His hands started to glow a pale green as he started the work of healing Jiraiya's chest.

It wasn't until hours later that he was done with the wound. He had spent most of his blood pills on Jiraiya but he had managed to heal the wounded Sannin, however not without avoiding scars. The Kyuubi's chakra had been like a poison that needed to be purged before the healing could start, extending the healing time by many times and removing all chances of closing the wound without any lasting scars.

When Naruto groggily woke up he saw a large building levelled to the ground and that Sousuke stood above Jiraiya healing a rather large wound on his chest. He could tell that Sousuke also had been hurt, judging from the dried blood that covered the whole left part of his green shirt.

"What happened here sensei?" Naruto questioned, obviously it had been a battle of large magnitude judging from the wreckage.

"You happened," was the only response from Sousuke as he wrapped bandage around Jiraiya's chest.

Naruto stared at his sensei in shock. "What… I…?"

"You lost control of your emotions, if you do that this is what might happen if you do. The anger clouds your judgment. The power you have, only use it if it is an absolute must. It is, after all, a double edged sword." Sousuke told him as he wrapped a bandage around Jiraiya before he started to tend to his own wound which seemed to be just superficial.

* * *

"Yamato you can control a Bijū's power correct?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, and with the Shodaime's necklace it is even easier," the ANBU responded.

"Well then I am instating you as the temporary leader of Team Kakashi until Kakashi have recovered, you are to see to that he don't go into the four tailed stage." Tsunade declared. "You're all dismissed." The Jōnin able to leave left the room.

"How troublesome," Sousuke muttered as he walked out of the hospital receiving odd glances from several nurses as he was carrying Tenten in his arms.

* * *

A/N: Future A/N will be in my profile. Now all I have to say is sorry for the delay but my computer pulled one on me. Reviews are appreciated.

SPOILER: Nothing major as of yet in my story changing the original but It'll come, around where Asuma is supposed to die in the manga.


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